Anime Car Wars: Mean Streets
by Sitting on the Event Horizon
Summary: The new nation of Texas is threatened from within by a gang-king from Houston. Only a newly revived agent with shaky memories could hope to stop the nuclear trigger of the bloodiest revolution Texas will ever experience in its whole fifty year history.
1. Nightmares and National Security

**Welcome to the world...**

**where the right of way belongs to those with the biggest guns**

**where killing is ok, as long as it is not premeditated**

**where most of the world's food supply is divided into an edible species of algae,**

**fruits and vegetables grown in hydroponic vats,**

**and an experimental breed of grain made within a small town in the American Midwest**

**with the potential to feed the rest of the world,**

**where chaos is just a step away from your front door **

**and your own survival depends on your wits and weaponry.**

**Welcome to Anime Car Wars.**

* * *

**"The fate of a nation rests on one man."** - Tag line for the political thriller movie "Air Force One"

Chapter 1 – **Nightmares and National Security**

Somewhere in the nation of Texas – Date unknown

For Luke fon Fabre, there's sleep, there's wakefulness, and then there's this. He was supposed to be asleep yet he had felt the warm sunlight on his face, its white rays pulsating with liquid energy.

Closing his eyes a little for a few seconds to block the incoming brightness; he could see the sun shining amidst the clear blue sky littered with natural and man made fliers. As he craned his neck looking around his surroundings, Luke had learned that he was in a city park in Austin, Texas.

More than that, a young blonde woman wearing a red sweat suit was running towards him from his left.

She was laughing at something, maybe the surprised expression on his face, he would never know. As she had stopped at his left side, she bent down to grab his left arm.

She had never noticed (nor cared) that in doing so, she had given the red head a free peek at her small chest through a little gap between the suit's collar and her pale neck.

Her laughter was so contagious that the young man could not help but join her as he had stood up and followed her on the park's asphalted jogging trail.

Neither the blonde nor the red head had actually noticed the teasing expressions of whoever they had met along the way, like they would care what the others had thought anyway.

Yet for the whole time that they were together, Luke did not even know the girl's identity. To him, the image of the said girl's face was blurry to the point of being unrecognizable.

A shame since the blond curls surrounding it had framed the face's rounded shape perfectly. Still, he had felt a strangely familiar sense of belonging as soon as he saw her coming.

-oOo-

Suddenly, the whole scene had changed right before the red head's very eyes while he and the girl had followed the path's curving route.

After feeling like floating at nothingness for a minute or two, as the previous background had de-razzed to nothingness and was promptly replaced by another, Luke had found himself settling down in the driver seat of a gray Chevrolet Carapace.

The car was armed with a twin laser at its pop up turret and a heavy duty flame thrower at its rear end. Once again, the blonde girl from before was with him. This time, she was sitting in the gunner or shot gun seat beside him.

They were traveling on the newly-opened Texas State Autobahn, the glorious new expressway built for combat maneuvering and duel speeds.

The red head had felt some uneasiness creeping into his mind, but he was unable to look more into it as the Carapace was rocked by five or six explosions, all of them caused by napalm mines that were laid by the metallic blue Honda Accura in front of them.

Luke had fought hard to keep the now careening car back in control while the girl armed the laser and clutched the joystick in front of her, ignoring the pain from her abdomen. Both were coughing from the whitish smoke made by the busted gauges and other electronics on their holed dashboard.

The girl had made a cry of joy upon hitting the Accura's mine dropper.

As the metallic blue car's rear weapon had blown up, the driver of the said car panicked. The Honda now weaved itself among the other vehicles plying the route, pieces of its armor and some body parts littering the road behind it.

After a brief moment, the car itself disintegrated as the flames had triggered the remaining ammunition of the rear weapon. Other cars had either steered clear of the burning wreck or moved to the side before stopping.

Luke had chosen the first option himself to further distance his car from the burning wreck.

With a loud whoop, the excited driver was about to turn to his gunner when he had heard another cry, this time it was in pain. While trying to keep his own cool, he tried to reassure his gunner that she would be alright and that he would take her to the nearest hospital.

In his panic, he did not notice the girl's face becoming clearer but he still did not recognize her.

In response, she had placed her right gloved forefinger to his lips right after she disengaged her seat belt. She had also added. "I-It's t-too l-late f-for that, L-Luke."

A sharp cry of pain had cut her off temporarily. "J-just remember, y-you g-gave me t-the best years of m-my…life. I-I love you, Luke but this is g-good bye…"

Luke could not believe what she was saying before her light blue eyes had closed for the final time.

"No! Don't go! I love you too, damn it. Don't leave me here!"

The girl slumped on his chest, her pink lips still curved in a small smile. The image was enough to clear the red head's fuzzy memories as he had crazily swerved to the roadside and disengaged his own seat belt.

But before Luke had removed the safety device, he had stomped on the brake and clutch and pulling the handbrake up.

"Natalia, don't die on me. You told me that we'll be together until the end of time. Nooo!" Luke had removed the girl's own seatbelt before hugging her slowly cooling body in the vain hope that it would be enough to bring her back to life.

When he had finally let go when the girl's hands went limp and her heart fell silent, Luke saw a red and sticky fluid stain his gloved palm and fingers.

The said stain slowly had evaporated from his hands, turning into a red mist that filled everything in sight, smothering the red head as he tried to open the car doors or windows in his panic.

-oOo-

Luke had woken up with a start, trying to catch his breath only to realize he could not even open his mouth. He tried again, still with no success. He then tried heaving his entire chest, while expanding his biceps and moving his arms in an attempt to break free.

It was all in vain as something soft yet resistant was preventing whatever movement he had made.

As a last resort, Luke had screamed with nearly all of his remaining strength. A little difficult since his jaws were snapped shut thus what did come out was a gurgling noise that would make any sane man run in terror.

'Someone must have heard it,' Luke thought as some light had broken through his closed eyelids. He had never even noticed that they were closed the whole time in his panic, only thinking that it was too dark to see anyway.

He also felt like he was lifted out of some sort of liquid, yet another fact that he did not notice until now. His ears had made a popping sound as soon as he felt the cold draft rush past through his whole body.

Voices, quick footsteps, and other background noises had echoed through his exposed ears as Luke was being carried somewhere. It was only through the rocking motion of his own body that he finally went to sleep.

The last thing he had heard before loosing consciousness was this: "Five, four, three…watch the regulator …steady pulse rate…administer the bioplasm agent, hurry…"

Luke almost would have woken up as something sharp had pierced his bare left buttock. Again he felt like taking another nap to make up for last time. His thoughts now quickly centered on where was and what was happening before losing consciousness.

It took a while but he finally figured out that he may have been in a Gold Cross medical facility or a Lazarus facility to be precise.

This facility is where clones grown in glass vats were "activated" by the input of the original person's brainwave patterns thus bringing the original back to life in a way.

With a contented mental sigh, Luke had let the darkness swallow him up once again.

-oOo-

As he lost consciousness for the second time that day, Luke had slipped into another dream. This time, he had dreamt that he was driving a supercharged Mazda RX-8 with two linked machine guns in its turret in the busy streets of San Antonio.

Having a bad feeling, he looked to his right only to find a man with light brown hair tied in a pony-tail and a goatee. The man was raising his Beretta 92F at the unarmored red head. The gun's muzzle was deftly aimed at the latter's side.

Regaining his wits at the last minute, Luke had stabbed the eject button, placed underneath the single weapon targeting computer's LCD screen. The said computer screen was located in the center console of the vehicle's dashboard.

The said action had caught the bearded man unawares as he and his leather seat were ejected into the San Antonio grayish skyline via an explosive blast of steam and compressed air.

Back in the car, an alarming beep had caught the red head's attention and he looked at the four inch computer screen. On it, instead of icons and superimposed images, were the words – "Trust the nun."

-oOo-

Once again, Luke had woken up but had to close his eyes from the bright light that shined on him just overhead. Luckily for him, it was eclipsed by a silhouette of a man.

As the man had moved back a bit, the figure was revealed to be that of a surgeon wearing his green scrub uniform and similarly colored aseptically mask. The man's voice was a bit muffled by the said mask as he was making hand signals to someone beyond the red head's view.

A forty something man with shoulder length messy dark blond hair had pushed his way through the four doctors surrounding the bed-ridden red head. The said medical practitioners had moved to the other side of the semi-dark operating room to provide even more space for the new arrival.

"Luke, thank goodness, you're alive." The man had paused briefly to catch his breath, probably from entering the room in a crazed run. "Some dumb ass had injected something in the clone tank where you were kept. It's a miracle that you're still alive and kicking."

Not seeing Luke's baffled look, he continued. "Are there any aftereffects? Anything that's wrong with you at all?"

The red headed duelist had mumbled that other than a splitting headache, he is fine.

"Alright, Luke. These quacks told me that you'll be back on your feet in a day or two. After which, you'll be spending the next three months in physical re..." The man's words had trailed off when he realized that the four surgeons were now glaring at him. "I was jus' joking, guys. Give the poor Colonel a break, will ya?"

Turning his attention back to the amused duelist, he had continued with a smile. "Well, I'm glad that **someone **in this room has a sense of humor."

It was then that his facial expression had turned serious. "Joking aside, things are going from bad to abysmal. Houston is in open rebellion and the famous Texas Guard may not be enough to stop it. So sleep well, Luke and I'll see you when I see you."

The man had left as quickly as he came with the surgeons shaking their heads in resigned disgust.

-oOo-

After Luke was brought to his private ward, he had thought about the wacky blond man that talked to him earlier.

A few minutes of running through his memories, he had realized that the man was his mentor and friend – Colonel Peony Malkuth the Ninth. He then tried to piece together who he really is.

A flood of memories then rushed through his mind, although a few were just too fuzzy to be of any use. This had made Luke remember his childhood in the Fabre mansion in Palestine, Texas.

The red head remembered that he was an only child of the Fabre family, thus making him the heir of a well known armor manufacturer in the Free Oil States. His father had died in an assassination attempt gone wrong almost twenty three years ago.

It was such that his mother has raised him alone while tending to the armor business of her deceased husband.

Thus, for most of his time in the Fabre manor was spent with his caretaker – Pere. His mother has never remarried as she had given more attention to the company as well as her only pride and joy – Luke himself.

The red head still visited his mother whenever he had the time while keeping his second job – a top ranking agent of Texas Intelligence a well kept secret. As such, she has always nagged him about settling down and having a family.

In his heart, he knew he could never fulfill that wish since he may die anytime, either as a professional duelist or as an elite agent, before he could even find the girl he would be marrying anyway.

Still there were a lot of things that he couldn't figure out like: who was Natalia and who was the man who tried to kill him in his second dream.

The surgeons had told him about the attempt to sabotage his clone- meaning that he had died and was only resurrected through the clone. The sabotage attempt had only affected the part of his brain where his memories are kept.

Therefore, some of his memories were lost for good. They also told him about some still unknown side effects that were bound to show up in the next three months that he would stay in the hospital for physical rehabilitation.

-oOo-

For the next three months, Luke had tried to walk with his hands on the stainless steel gym handrails on either side of him, lifted weights, swam laps in the hospital's indoor heated swimming pool, and jogged when he could finally support his own weight.

After each strenuous activity, he was escorted back to the nurses' office for some physical examination.

Whenever the red headed agent sleeps at night, an image of Natalia still haunted his dreams. Her face becoming more and more recognizable with each and every night he had dreamed about her.

Until now, he was still in the dark as to what was her relationship to him was and how she died.

Even the nurses were not able to answer his questions about her since they did not have any viable access to his personal file and whatever information they had been able to bring up was obviously sanitized.

As the third month was about to end, his personal nurse with long dark brown hair told him something strange. "Mr. Fabre, if I didn't know you better, I could have sworn that you're psychic."

Luke had laughed at the statement causing the nurse to make an irritated growl. "C'mon. Sayuri, jus' call me Luke since Mr. Fabre is just too stuffy fer a cool guy like myself."

"I'm not kidding, Mr. F- Luke. When I was about to take your blood pressure or take a sample of your blood, you had rolled your right arm. In either case, I had not even asked you to do so."

Smirking at the shock present in the duelist's face, she had continued her tirade with a bigger smile. "You even held out your tongue when Dr. Saotome was about to check your tonsils when she hadn't said anything about it either."

Luke then rubbed his chin with the thumb and forefinger of his right hand as he had given the subject of his untapped powers of mental telepathy some thought.

"You're right, Sayuri. Too bad, I can't control it consciously." The red head said as he had shrugged the whole thing off as if it was nothing.

"I guess so, Luke. If you're finally able to, can you please take a peek at Daichi's head just to see if he only thinks about machines or if I'm in there too?" The brunette nurse- Sayuri Suizenji had asked with a slight blush in her cheeks that were framed by her dark brown hair.

"Sure, jus' bring the great 'Daichi Hayami' to me and I'll give it a shot." Luke answered with a roguish smile.

"Thanks, Luke. You jus' made my night. Merry Christmas," Sayuri said as she had kissed the taller young man's right cheek while standing on tiptoes before skipping away in joy.

The red headed duelist just laughed as he had unlocked the door leading to his ward and entered.

-oOo-

By the first week of the fourth month after he was revived (December 2038), Luke was finally released from the hospital.

A gray Cadillac Carapace was waiting for him outside the hospital's front door. The four door car had taken him to a non-descript yet well-fortified building at the south end of Austin. After entering the building, his escorts guided him to the elevator to their right.

After disembarking at the fourth floor, they had led him to a familiar office at the door nearest the end of the hallway. After a couple of knocks, they then entered the said room.

Colonel Malkuth had stood up from his executive's chair and greeted the red head as the latter had just entered past the cedar wood door. The two escorts had saluted and left the room immediately.

"Take yer seat, Luke." The Texas Intelligence chief had told his protégé and friend right after he returned Luke's crisp salute. Both men then took their respective seats.

Peony's seat was right behind the oak desk while Luke's seat was the stainless steel chair complete with cushion in front and just to the right of the said desk.

"Dr. Anna Saotome and her colleagues have apprised me of your present condition, Luke. I'm told that in your current incarnation, neither your physical prowess nor your memories are up to par." The colonel had paused as he took a set of stapled papers from the foot high stack on his untidy desk. "Nevertheless, whatever you had learned in yer last mission along with your newly discovered ability ta read minds, make you the best man for this mission."

"Wait a minute, whaddaya mean whatever I had learned in my last mission? Hello! Just revived agent with fuzzy memories here," Luke said as he abruptly stood up.

"Luke, calm down and shut up. I only meant that on your last mission, you were tracking these items." The blond colonel answered as he had disappeared behind his desk.

Colonel Peony then emerged from behind the desk carrying a large cardboard box in his brawny arms. He had unloaded the box to show the following items held within it – a rusted gate valve handle, some plastic buttons made for pneumatic systems, a piece of bent metal that could only be seen as a part of a submarine latch's spinning hatch handle and a piece of a submarine bulkhead.

"All of these trinkets are from the Texas Navy nuclear attack submarine- City of Corpus Christi," The colonel said as explanation for all the items he had showed.

He then gave a brief history of the submarine so that his best agent could understand how important his next mission would be with some help from his overhead projector and his desktop computer.

"The Christi's been down there in the Gulf of Mexico for over thirty years since it was sunk rather than be taken by either the U.S. Navy just off-shore or by the gangs who had just taken over Houston. It was the latter that had actually galvanized the captain and his crew to scuttle their beloved sub before their own surrender to the crew of the USS Augusta- a nuclear powered stealth destroyer that was sent in to capture the submarine, its captain and its thirty five man crew." The colonel paused as he had taken the opportunity to drink a bit of water from the hot and cold water dispenser to his left before continuing.

"We knew somethin' was up when these seemingly innocent trinkets started showing up in the local black market. We actually sent ya to investigate the matter when you were killed." The colonel said as he frowned at the memory of his best agent being killed in action. "Blew you up to kingdom come in pieces too small for even Gold Cross to resurrect. So we pulled out one of your spare clones but some nut job sabotaged your clone, or in this case- you, in an attempt ta keep you off the case for good."

Luke was dumbstruck at the short summary of his last mission for Texas Intelligence. He had asked his mentor on how he was killed.

"Funny you should ask 'bout the sabotage of your cloning process, Luke. The answer is we don't even know the dumb ass that did it. I personally cleared anyone with access to that Gold Cross facility thus the one who did it is probably one of us."

"Colonel Malkuth, I was askin' on who killed me not who tried ta kill me the second time around." Luke tried to ask a second time, his voice steadily rising in volume.

"Sorry, Luke. Must be gettin' old, y'know. You must 'ave been askin' on how far along were ya on tracking those trinkets." The colonel said as he had tapped his temple with his forefinger. "Well, it was actually a lead from one of your contacts. Oddly enough, I knew them only by the code names that ya gave them like Ali Baba, Miss Moneybags, and the Old Lady."

"Colonel Peony Malkuth the Ninth!! Stop beatin' around the bush. I'm sure you **know** who killed me along with whoever's behind him and I want ta know **who** they are," Luke had snapped as he again stood up and even banged his fists on the desk to get the desired effect.

"Ok, ok. Just don't go postal on this. Let me start at the beginning. You were actually married, early in your career or about five years ago. The girl's name was Natalia Luzu Kimlasca-Lanvadear. You guys were a model couple, not only did you two live together but you fight together as well." The colonel had waited until Luke had calmly sat down before continuing. "While you were competing in Colorado for the Autoduel Gran Prix last year, I sent her along with two other agents to assassinate a two-bit hood named Vandesdelca Musto Fende or Van Grants as he is now known."

"Lemme guess, they failed and he got even." Luke said with a scowl. The older man had wisely ignored the interruption.

"Yes, he made plans ta bait your wife a second time, about seven months ago. This time around, **you **were involved for all that it was good fer." This time, the colonel made a sneer at the stubbornness of the couple to finally take down the rising star of the criminal underworld. "He had caught both of you in an elaborate trap. It was only through your wife's selfless act that you were able to run to safety."

Luke had tried to remember his last moments with his wife, only to fail miserably. He had concluded that only in his dreams could he see those critical moments. The older man had cleared his throat meaningfully just get things back on track.

"Alright, boss. How does that…incident have anything ta do with my own recent death?"

The blond colonel had looked at him in total shock before saying. "You really don't remember, don't ya?"

He then turned his back on the confused red head before answering the latter's question. "When Van killed your wife, he had also stolen one of our cloning chambers in one of our allied hospitals and used your wife's cells ta make for himself a bodyguard after he had the clone's mind wiped clean. When you had gotten too close to completin' the mission, he sent the clone to kill ya along with herself with a hidden time bomb under your shared hotel room bed, no less."

"Oh boy, I guess I must 'ave blown her mind 'n more ways than one. He he he," Luke joked dryly.

"Ha ha ha. Good one, Luke. Now let's go thorough some basic Texan history since ya may have forgotten all 'bout it." The Colonel had cheerily laughed despite the lame joke to keep the atmosphere upbeat even for a moment.

After taking a green Morocco folder from the mass of paper and office supplies on the desktop, he started the history lesson. "After the Secession War with the United States at the turn of the millennium, Houston was pretty much knocked out of civilization. Things got worse during the Grain Blight of 2012 and Food Riots of 2018."

After a pause, Peony had continued. "Unlike the rest of Texas, it never recovered. It's now a lawless urban jungle that's home ta uncivilized gangs and tribes, with a tight cordon made around it by the Texas Guard. This is to ensure that the gangs and other lowlifes stay there and not cause harm to other Texans."

The blond had flipped a worn page before continuing once again. "Three years ago, Van Grants was just a minor gang leader. The guy's certainly has a lot of charisma since he's now in total control in Houston as gang-king. Nobody could touch 'im since he's surrounded by his personal bodyguards of female fatales – 'the Rebeccas'. He promised to lead his followers in a holy war against Texas, to throw down the republic and proclaim himself as the country's first monarch."

"He sure dreams big, doesn't he?" Luke unknowingly mused aloud.

The colonel had heard him before answering. "Yes, he does. The Chirsti may actually be the answer to the riddle on how will he and his goons plan ta seize control of the republic."

"Well then, what do we know 'bout that submarine that makes Van so sure he can take down the government?"

"Nice ta know that you're willin' to learn more about your mission. Luke." Peony then scribbled a little note and telling the agent to give it to Dr. Tsuyoshi Utada before resuming the meeting.

After tapping the wall charts with his rubber tipped pointer to get Luke's full attention. The red head had realized that they were actually a set of deck plans, all brown with age.

"The Christi carried six nuclear missiles on her action deck when she went down. She actually had more tubes on her maiden voyage in the early 1990's but they were taken out in her reconstruction as a stealth sub in 1999, both to make room for advanced sensor jamming equipment and for some needed streamlining to make her much faster in the water."

After moving to the second deck plan, he then said. "The missiles themselves will be useless after all these years in the bottom of the sea, but the warheads themselves should be intact. Fortunately for us, the fledgling Texas Navy of the time had a strict security policy – those warheads won't do anybody any good without the special atomic detonators, all of them kept under lock and key in the sub's vault."

"None of the detonators could be duplicated?" Luke said as he had pondered on how that fact would be to their advantage.

The blond had answered with a wry smile. "Yes, since each detonator was custom-built for a different warhead. So whoever salvages the Christi has ta come up with a warhead **and** its corresponding detonator. No more, no less."

The colonel then pulled down the deck plans and rolled it up with his agent's then replaced them in the wooden box placed at the right light green wall of the office.

After cleaning their hands of the grime, Peony added. "There are only six detonators, one for each warhead so you only have ta take all six and Van's plans will go kaput."

Suddenly the desk intercom lights had flashed intermittently. The angry Colonel had pushed the talk button and almost yelled "I said ta hold all calls."

The desk intercom instantly transforms into a mini-television monitor. Colonel Peony's aide was seen on the small screen, his voice a bit tinny from the little speakers beside the screen. "Sir! We're under att-"

Both men had heard the gunfire from the intercom's little speakers. The bullet ridden aide had slumped over the screen before the bloodied screen itself had blanked out. A loud bang had caught their attention as something heavy crashed into the door of the office.

"Seems that our 'guests' have just arrived, take cover behind the desk with me." Peony said as he had taken an item from his desk drawer.

Luke complied and the colonel had given him a Walter PPK/E as they overturned the desk drawer after placing the desktop computer and printer on the floor beside it and waited.

They did not have to wait for long since the door was broken through quickly enough. Two gunmen, their faces planted white to look like skulls and their teeth filled to points, had entered the room with their guns blazing.

Bullets and buck shot had dug into furniture and computer hardware, sending wood chips, pieces of cotton, pieces of plastic, and ceramic chips from the rare Ming vases placed in two farther corners of the room everywhere.

"Hey, I paid good money for those vases." Peony exclaimed as he had tagged one of the surprised gunmen with two full metal jackets to the head. "That'll learn ya."

The colonel had to duck as a rain of twenty four lead pellets rushed past where his head had been. Luke had jumped to the side and got two shots at the second man, one at his left leg and the second at his stomach.

The gunman had gone down to the carpeted floor and slowly let go of his 12 gauge shotgun, blood oozing from his two wounds.

He shakily withdrew a red capsule filled with poison from his right back pocket as he had landed on the floor in a heap and swallowed the capsule before Luke and Peony could stop him. "Too late, dorks. Master Van rules…"

-oOo-

After the mess have been cleared (including the two dead bodies) and everything was either replaced or repaired, Peony had told his top agent that this very incident proved how desperate Van's minions were to complete their plans.

"I'll bet my whole weapons collection that Van has known where the Christi lies and may have even sent some of his men to board it. Right now, he may already 'ave taken all of the warheads from the submarine and then have the warheads sent to his base. It's only a matter of time before he can make good his threat against the government and start a civil war."

"What about the detonators?"

"He'll have them too as soon as he locates the ship's vault," Peony said with a heavy sigh as they had no way to make sure of that theory, other than breaking into the enemy's stronghold itself. "I have three agents on the inside – all of them loyal, I believe- who will help ya enter Van's base. Getting the detonators shouldn't be that hard, but getting out of Houston with them would be a worthy challenge for an agent of your caliber."

"I'll do my best, Sir." Luke answered with utmost confidence.

"That's why I called you for this mission, Luke. I'm sure that you can infiltrate Houston, get the detonators, and get out with the said items on hand. All of it while remaining in one piece," Peony said as he had shaken the younger man's hand. "Good luck and Merry Christmas."

"Thank you, sir and Merry Christmas to you too." Luke replied as he had made a crisp salute before heading for the Outfitting wing of Texas Intelligence headquarters.

-oOo-

As Luke was approaching the said wing, he entered a door on its right side. On the door is a sign – Dr. Tsuyoshi Utada, Director. As he entered, a thirty two year old chubby man with corrective glasses had greeted him.

"Marry Christmas, Luke. The Old Man has cleared you for Special Equipment. I already called Ginji and told him to set up the items ASAP. Just tell him your file number – A 287."

"Thanks, Doc and Happy Holidays ta you too. I jus' hope that your toys will be workin' properly," Luke replied as he had shaken the older man's hand.

"Luke, I can assure you that they do work. Have a little faith in my inventions, will ya?" Dr. Utada was saying as he had led the young agent to the main outfitting counter or "Utada's Showroom" as everyone in the Intelligence HQ had playfully called it.

-oOo-

As both men had entered the door, they saw a blond haired twenty seven year old staring intently at his personal computer. The said young man's face was actually in deep concentration as the two visitors had neared him.

A quick peek on the seventeen inch LCD computer screen showed why – he was actually flying an F-22 Raptor fighter jet through his flying simulation software. He even had a white joystick on his right hand moving this way and that as his eyes never even left the screen.

His ears were covered with headphones so he could only hear the sounds of the plane he's "flying."

"That nitwit, he's always getting his head into the clouds. I guess I'll have to chew him out later for playing computer games on company time," Dr. Utada was saying as he went behind the counter, opened the oak door behind the blond, and headed on into the store room beyond the said door.

As the door to the store room was closed with a loud slam, Ginji (the young blond) had suddenly shot up from his seat only to be stopped by the thin wires of his headphones. With a hiss of pain, he had thrown the offending items back to the counter and faced an amused Luke as soon as he stood up.

"Um, are ya alone by any chance?" The slightly older blonde said as he had closed the simulation program and opened the required accounting program instead.

"Nope, I was with Dr. Utada earlier." The red head answered with a chuckle.

"Oh shit." Ginji said as he had hurried to the store room after grabbing a piece of paper that was placed beside his mouse pad.

Luke had sat down on the fiberglass chair leaning against the right wall. Muffled shouts and other sounds of pain were heard through the door at random moments.

After about half an hour's waiting, both Ginji and Tsuyoshi had emerged from the door, each one carrying various items including a back pack big enough for most of the said items. The blond was also rubbing a few bumps on his head from the items that probably fell on him earlier.

A quick check had revealed that Luke would be given two leather holsters, one for his waist and another to his right shoulder. Both holsters would be holding a .44 Magnum Desert Eagle pistol and a Glock 18 machine pistol respectively.

Both guns had come with a silencer (for the Desert Eagle only) and laser targeting scope (for both guns).

Inside his black leather backpack were: six flash grenades (or flash bangs), six fragmentation grenades, a stun gun, four limpet mines, an Infrared black suit (that hid his body heat from IR sensors), an ID scanner, some commando face paint, a Beretta 418 pistol, and tinted goggles.

The agent would also wear an armored battle vest over his black fatigues where his three dimensional binoculars with range/vector read out, walkie-talkie, Personal Digital Assistant with Voice command program (allowing voice commands), Radio link program (to remotely trigger radio detonators), and Physical Monitor program (to monitor vital signs of whoever its needles and wire is attached to) installed, lock tool kit, and extra ammo clips were kept.

After all the items have been given, both Tsuyoki and Ginji had given the red head a pat on the back as they sent him on his way to the Dispositions office, just down the hall.

-oOo-

The Dispositions office is the only section authorized to make travel arrangements for its agents. Along the way, Luke had thought about the many ways to travel surreptitiously to Houston.

The first would be by water, either through fishing boats or by submarine. The second would be by land, either by driving around the hostile gangs or by doing the same on foot. The third would be by air, either by using a parachute or glider.

Out of the three given, the third option is the fastest and the least dangerous of all (especially at night) since he could easily be spotted and captured if he had used the first two options. He had fervently hoped that he would travel by air, since Texas zeppelins are supposed to be awesome.

Luke had arrived just in time as the clerk had just arrived from his mid afternoon coffee break carrying with him the agent's travel folder that was usually kept in a safe.

Luke's gut feeling was alarmed when he had noticed that the clerk seemed to be a bit too jumpy for his own good, the skinny man was shaking like a leaf on a blustery day.

The clerk's hands were visibly shaking as he slowly placed the bulky plastic envelope on the counter top as he said. "You arrived just in time, Agent Fabre. Here are your travel documents."

The redheaded agent had closely examined the envelope since he saw something weird on the item itself. It was sealed by a top security electronic lock, which could only be opened by the red head's fingerprints.

He wondered why there was even a need for this type of security but Luke was more concerned about the scratch marks around it. It was as if someone was trying to disable the lock itself.

Knowing that something was wrong, the red headed agent had calmly taken his seat behind a table where he had placed his back pack and slowly reached for his Glock 18 at his shoulder holster while leaning downwards as if to ties his shoelaces.

As soon as the agent saw that a SIG Sauer P226's barrel had come from behind the counter top, he had toppled the oak table, where his bag was placed, on its side and hid behind it.

As the first shot jad narrowly missed hitting his head and made a small hole at the table's upper edge instead, Luke then switched his Glock to burst mode and shot the man at his own head- the only thing visible from the red head's position.

The clerk had died instantly as Luke called security and explained what had happened. The agenet then left the room immediately with his backpack, ignoring the security men placing a blue blanket over the dead body and carrying it outside to be buried in a nearby empty lot.

* * *

Welcome to the fifth and final story of the Anime Car War series, Mean Streets. It's not Auldrant but the whole picture is kind off the same as that world.

For example, life outside the city is just as dangerous as in the game. Only the people there do not face monsters and bandits but cycle gangs, drifters and people who kill others just to survive themselves.

My apologies to Natalia fans, but just like in Badlands Run, I had to kill a character off so you can see how desperate the various enemies in the Anime Car Wars world really is. On the other hand, I still think that the death scene itself needs a lot of improving but I'll leave that for another time.

By the way, the Luke fon Fabre in the last chapter of Green Circle Blues is actually the original Luke or Asch the Bloody in contrast with the one here who is the Luke fon Fabre that we all know and love (maybe even hate for some) in the game.

As before, I cannot promise that I can keep every anime character (yes, Tales of the Abyss also has been made into an anime) in character but I'll give it my best shot in doing so.

Also, I do not own Tales of the Abyss but Namco (JP) or Namco-Bandai (US) does. The same could be said for Car Wars, the vehicles and weapons shown here, and even the flying simulation software that Ginji has been using.

Oh yeah, I don't own Machine Robo Rescue and its characters but Sunrise does.

Speaking of which, Sunrise recently made the anime of TOA too. So both Machine Robo Rescue and Tales of the Abyss actually have something in common other than having their characters borrowed by me for the purpose of this fan fiction.

Having said way too much, I'll leave you guys for the moment while I prepare the next chapter for posting. No previews this time since they're not that useful anyway.

Just read and enjoy.


	2. Night Flights, Nuke Detonators,and Ni

In this chapter, I can now introduce some more characters from both MRR and TOA.

Not much drama in this one since I replaced it with a bit of humor (whether it is toilet humor or not, I'll leave it up to you). Thank you, fabre for giving a review and things will get even more interesting from this chapter onward.

Legend: "words" - spoken, 'words'- thoughts, _words - _written , **words - **said in emphasis, chapter title, and quote below.

So read and enjoy.

* * *

**"Karl, hunt the little shit down and get those detonators."** - Hans Gruber, Die Hard

Chapter 2 – **Night Flights, Nuclear Detonators, and… Nice Legs**

Agent Luke fon Fabre had headed for a secluded spot near the main entranceway of the Texas Intelligence headquarters before opening the brown envelope.

The red head then carefully took out its contents like security passes, some orders printed in plain bond paper, and a smaller sealed envelope for the commander of the Texan Naval Guard airfield while acting like he was looking for his tickets.

He then returned them to the envelope immediately except for a little note made in Peony's scrawny handwriting.

On it, this was written:

_Luke, _

_Remember not to trust any of our agents during the course of this mission besides the three field agents that I told you about. Van has a mole in our organization, which was how the two loonies that attacked us earlier in my office had gotten in. _

_That is why I had taken the utmost precautions with these arrangements even to the point of writing it myself. Usually, I just dictate this to my sexy secretary so it would appear professional and all._

_The code word for this mission is "Necromancer" and the color is "blue". Go to hanger 211 of the Texas Naval Guard airfield between Mountain City and Buda by 4:30 PM. _

_Also remember to get the detonators and head to Bay Town as quickly as possible with them to complete your mission. It is there that the nearest Texas Guard Outpost to your extraction point is located and they would be more then willing to help you out if necessary. _

_Once again, good luck and **stay alive** this time._

_Colonel Peony Malkuth the Ninth_

_P.S. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. _

After he had disposed off the note in the nearest restroom, Luke took a quick peek at his old silver Rolex watch. It had read 3:45 PM. With a curse on his lips, the agent had run past the puzzled guards in the entrance way and hailed for a taxi.

-oOo-

As soon as he entered the faded yellow vehicle, Luke had told the driver with gritted teeth. "Texas Naval Guard airfield… and step on it."

"Sure, Mac. Jus' give me a little somethin' special, if y'know what I mean." The taxi driver had replied with a wide grin that showed his yellow stained teeth as he readied his meter, the only thing in the taxi that was still new.

"Yeah, yeah. Jus' get us there in twenty minutes and I'll even pay ya double. Now go!"

The taxi driver's pimpled face had broken into a wider toothy grin as he put his faded yellow rented vehicle in gear and drove it as fast as legally possible. Luke had to admit that the driver had already known all the shortcuts leading to the airfield and had used them to his advantage.

The agent was so preoccupied with the surroundings that he did not even enjoy the Christmas songs being played on the taxi's radio.

The 50mm diameter heavy rockets on the yellow cab's roof racks had swayed this way and that as the taxi itself made its way past the mid afternoon traffic.

That was why when the cab arrived at its destination nineteen minutes later, Luke had given the taxi driver double his fare as promised. The taxi driver had wished the agent a Merry Christmas while waving his wad of bills as he sped off.

Luke had run up the steps towards the airfield's main building while rustling for the passes that he kept in the envelope he held in his right hand. The agent had stumbled a bit in his rush but was helped by the kind guards that were stationed at the building's entrance.

After inspecting his backpack and a quick frisking on his person, Luke was led to Hanger 211 by one of the Shore Patrol guards. The burly lady guard then asked for the letter for her superior before leaving the agent to his own devices.

-oOo-

On closer inspection, Luke's jaw had dropped at the sheer size of the hanger. The agent had believed it to be at least twice the length of a football field. But the lighter than air craft stowed in there was not exactly dwarfed by its surroundings though since it was a gray Texas naval zeppelin.

Luke had examined the giant lighter than air machine much like a child would do in a toy store. The massive aluminum hull was filled with big plastic airbags filled with helium, a row of silent electric engines and propellers drive it through the air.

Zepplins were not known to be very fast but they certainly carry a lot of destructive power as evidenced by the impressive weapons on the gondola's three turrets.

While Luke was admiring his ride to Houston, there was a gentle tap on his right shoulder. As the agent turned around to see who tapped him, a nervous face with glasses came into view.

The young Bull Ensign had promptly given a salute as Luke's confused green eyes had settled on him. Luke slowly returned the salute, still puzzled with the teenager's strange behavior

"Agent Fabre. He's just nervous since he has heard of you as a professional duelist. Frankly, he's still in awe of your back to back victories in the arenas these past few years," A blond young man with a crew cut had answered as he approached the two from the zeppelin gondola's open door. The blond man's age was around Luke's own give or takes a few years.

"Oh, sorry. I was just taken aback earlier. Can I borrow a pen?" The red head had asked both members of the Texas Naval Guard. "By the way, who are you?"

"H-here's my pen, sir." The black haired teen said as he had shakily pulled out a Pilot technical pen followed by a small notebook from his pant leg pocket. "Um, here's a notebook so you can write your anything you want… like your autograph, for example."

"Calm yourself down, Kai. He ain't a superhero. He's just an ordinary Joe like us with an important job to do," The blond said while laughing and ruffling the teenager's black hair, almost knocking off his glasses in the process.

"Captain Cecil, you don't understand how I feel about meeting my idol. He may not be a superhero, but -" Kai was about to add more when Captain Cecil clamped his mouth shut with his brown gloved left hand.

"Sorry for the delay in introducing myself, Agent Fabre. I'm Captain Gailardia Cecil, or Guy for short. I'm also the commander of the Albiore, which is the name of the zeppelin that you were admiring earlier." The blond said as he had offered his free hand for a handshake.

"This is Bull Ensign Kai Kitzawa, my navigator in the ship." The said officer had added as he placed a hand on the younger man's left shoulder.

"I see. Well, shall we get going since the Albiore should be taking off soon?" Luke had shaken both Guy's and Kai's hands and gave back to the teen - his spiral notebook (now with the agent's autograph) and his technical pen.

"Yep, this blimp's ready ta fly. Kai, go on first to prepare the Albiore for immediate take off."

"Yes, sir." Kai said before he immediately ran first to the gondola's armored door.

Almost as soon as Kai had come in the gondola, he was heard shouting. "Taiyoh, quit kissing Ren and get to your stations."

After a moment, he was heard saying. "That's not funny, guys."

Luke had asked the blond captain on who Kai was referring to in his outbursts. Guy had only answered that Ensign Taiyoh Ohzora is his main pilot and the girl – Ensign Rin Haruka is the brunet teen's girlfriend and co-pilot.

Rin and Kai had also doubled as the ship's gunners whenever the Albiore is either under attack or providing some aerial fire support.

The blond captain did envy his subordinates for being together even in battle since his own fiancée- Noelle had also served as a captain on another zeppelin, but managed to change the topic of the conversation to what Luke would do when they arrive in the rendezvous point.

By the time Guy has explained what the agent would be doing, the pair had already gone through half of the airship's gondola. Guy then led Luke to the airship's bridge which is the end of the captain's impromptu tour.

-oOo-

At the airship's small bridge, Luke had listened as Guy rambled on and on about his lighter than air craft's offensive and defensive capabilities, its flying performance and other technical stuff.

As the red headed agent had moved his head about to keep himself from boredom, he had spied the young teen with messy brown hair sitting in the pilot seat some distance in front of him.

The said teen seemed to be making silly faces to the delight of the blue haired Chinese girl sitting on what seemed to be the co-pilot's chair.

The red head had thought that the brunet was probably bored to tears by his superior's bragging just like he himself was. 'That kid must be Taiyoh and that girl sitting next to him must be Rin. Guy's right, he's one lucky bastard ta have that cute chick as his girl.'

"Earth to Luke. You there, man." Guy was waving his right hand in front of his guest's face in his confusion.

"Um, he he. Sorry for blanking out there, Captain Cecil. Pre-mission jitters, I guess. I think I'll be headin' for my room now fer a short nap." Luke had made a short salute before turning around.

"Whoa, man. At least, let me have someone escort you to your room." Guy said as he turned to the two teens in the front end of the bridge. "Taiyoh, Rin, bring Agent Fabre to his quarters. I'll take over the ship's navigation for now."

-oOo-

As the teenaged couple slowly herded Luke to his temporary quarters, the red headed had asked them on how they had met.

"Well sir, we met in the military academy. She's a straight A-type honor student while I'm-" The brunet ensign was saying as he and the girl had kept in step with their taller guest.

"He's the usual slacker with the tendency to get into trouble," Rin had finished for him.

"Hey, I don't always look for trouble. It jus' so happens that it's actually the other way around." Taiyoh said as he had crossed his arms over his muscular chest as his lips curved into a pout. "Like when Kai shouted to the whole world what we were doing earlier."

"True, true. You did teach me how to have fun every once in a while and that you also have an uncanny feeling when there's danger in the midst." Rin said while she was actually massaging her slightly taller boyfriend's shoulder.

They had already neared the state room that was reserved for their honored guest when the brunet added. "But you act as my logical side whenever I think of doin' something stupid."

Turning to the now amused older man, he added. "I guess that's why I love her, she taught me on how to be responsible while I teach her on how ta have fun."

"By the way, what did you do to Kai earlier?" The older man was scratching his head at the previous event as he spoke.

"Oh that, we jus' pulled his pants down. Served him right fer embarrassin' us like that," The brunet had answered with a mischievous grin. Luke had to laugh slightly as Rin had wagged her finger at her amused boyfriend as she admonished him yet again.

By now, the three had reached Luke's room and all of them had bid their farewells and Christmas greetings as the agent closed the door.

-oOo-

By eight in the evening, Luke was woken up from his nap by a gentle knocking on the door. He had opened it to reveal Guy who smiled as he told Luke to get ready to disembark the airship.

The agent had asked the senior officer to wait for a second as he picked up his back pack and armored vest. He wore the latter as the two men headed to the rear of the titanium armored gondola.

It was only a short walk from Luke's room to a rather large room with an unfolded hand glider where the blond airship captain led him to.

Afterwards, the blond captain had helped the agent strap on the technologically-sophisticated hand glider that has the required instruments like a vario-altimeter or vertical speed and altitude indicator. This little gadget that came with the glider would help Luke determine if he could remain in the air or not.

Guy had also fastened a radio beacon to the red head's chest before connecting it to its various receptacles in the glider's aluminum frame. "The signal from one of your partners will guide you down to the designated rendezvous point. Jus' be careful on the way down since any object projectin' upwards is a potential death trap."

Luke had nodded silently as he gradually remembered what he had learned from glider training back when he was still a new recruit. The captain had pulled the lever, making the ramp lower itself down for the glider's take off.

"Good luck, Luke and good hunting." Guy added as Luke slowly walked to the edge of the ramp and took the jump to infinity. "Oh yeah, Merry Christmas."

-oOo-

Along the way down, Luke was buffeted by a sudden updraft but he had twisted and turned enough for his glider to get out of range. He then tried to listen to the beacon's distinct audible beeps above the wind so he could slowly glide his way to the ground.

He had also attuned his ears to hear the beep of the variometer over the shrill whistle of the winds passing him by, which had guided him on which down drafts he should ride on his way down.

As he had finally gotten the hang of hang gliding, he risked a look back at the zeppelin. It had already turned off its navigational lights, making it hard to see in the dark sky, especially from the ground. He then looked down at the city in its entire nightly splendor.

Bonfires had lit up parts of the ruined city, giving it an eerie glow. The streets themselves had showed up as darker lines against the lighter gray of buildings (ruined or not) and impromptu gang barricades. He had even seen the tall and twisted spires of what had been Downtown Houston from a distance.

From what he had memorized in the town's old maps, Luke had figured out that his beacon was leading him to eastern Houston. Some time later, he could see rusting giant oil tanks and cranes jut out from the ground. He had surmised that he was now entering the old industrial and shipping section of the devastated metropolis.

The red head then began to worry on where he could land since this part of town was filled with buildings and other tall structures that he could crash into or worse, tear his glider's fiber glass skin and make him fall to the ground.

His worries had dissipated, minutes later, as a grassy field came to view and Luke had tried to land his glider on it. The landing itself became a little shaky as the night time ocean breezes had once again lifted the glider to a slightly higher altitude.

Once again, Luke had turned the black glider to release it from the wind's grasp, only to have a very bumpy landing afterwards.

After he landed, the agent had tried to stop the glider from pulling him along the ground but the wind was just too strong. Finally, he had used the glider's hook knife to free himself from the straps' tightening hold.

After he set himself free and rolled on the grass as a result of the violent separation from his glider, the red headed agent had chased the runaway glider and folded it before keeping it under a big rock.

-oOo-

Luke had sat on an uprooted tree's trunk as he waited for his partners to arrive. To keep himself from being bored (and dead), he had studied the surrounding field. Tall grasses seemed to sprout wherever there isn't anything else on the ground to keep them low.

Some trees show up here and there along with some rusting heavy construction equipment and also some ruined structures. All in all, a perfect place for secret meetings and other trysts.

After waiting for fifteen minutes, Luke was about to pick up his back pack and just look for his "partners" himself when he had heard something in the tresses about ten feet from him.

There was a sudden rustle in the grasses to his left and the red head immediately drew his Desert Eagle from its waist holster as a precaution to a sneak attack.

"Whoa, don't shoot. I'm just an innocent wanderer just lookin' fer a place to relieve my bladder," A man with brown hair that had some green tint in its edges said as he came out of the tresses, both bare hands raised in a surrender fashion.

"Ugh, jus' turn around and do it then." Luke said as he had immediately holstered his gun while his face scrunched up in barely hidden disgust. The man did as he was told and had even wiped his hands on both his black jeans' pant legs after doing the deed.

"Howdy, name's Peter Downly. I'm one of the guys who were assigned by Colonel Peony the Ninth ta be yer guide to the whereabouts of the nuclear detonators. Kind of a Christmas gift from us to the ol' Colonel," The man said as he had offered his hand for a hand shake.

"Um, no thanks. So where are the other two?" Luke said as he had tried to hide his disgust.

"Oh, they got caught tryin' to help me 'scape from one of the gangs under Master Van's thumb. We're gonna get that goatee wearin' bastard if it's the last thing we'll do," Peter added as he laughed heartily.

Luke had laughed along even though he felt something strange with Peter's words and actions. It was just too convenient for them to meet here if he was actually eluding someone. But he had continued to play along as his "partner" may actually lead him to someplace or someone useful.

Poom!

All of a sudden, Peter went down to the ground. Blood had made a fresh puddle from the fallen man's head.

Luke had also ducked since the sniper may have been after him too. The red head again drew his Desert Eagle from its shoulder holster, since it had a silencer along with a laser targeting scope, while he was still lying on the ground.

He then shifted to a combat crouching position and slowly walked to the fallen man, avoiding the spilled blood.

To his surprise, he was not able to feel a pulse in the man's left wrist. The reason was that the sniper had targeted Peter's head for an instant kill. Luke then heard several footsteps approaching him.

The agent had laid himself flat on the dusty ground as he held the pistol's barrel since he had intended to use his gun to knock out one of the approaching men while he stood up before escaping in the ensuing confusion.

Through the thin curtain of grass blades, Luke could see three pairs of legs skidding to a stop just a few feet from him.

One of the pairs of legs seem long and muscled but Luke could not be sure since the man was wearing military grade body armor, the middle pair seemed to be shorter and through the holes in his gray pants legs has dirty pale skin with some noticeable scars.

The last pair while covered in light armor was definitely feminine in form and Luke had wished that the girl attached to them was wearing denim shorts instead of light green body armor with fur linings. He had looked down only to see a tiny puddle of blood right under his chin.

'Shit, what a perfect time ta have a nosebleed.' The agent had thought in anger as he again laid down to the ground and wiped his nose with his brown handkerchief. His chin almost touching the dirt in the process.

Luke then heard the three persons talking about meeting someone. One of the voices had held a hint of malice in its tone as its owner had said that he may have been killed by a wayward TV antenna on his way down.

The other two voices, both higher in pitch than the first, had berated the first voice as they had seen the said person land safely on their way to their meeting spot.

"Jade, I'm sure Luke is in here somewhere. Let's just hope that Peter hadn't killed him first," The female's sultry voice chimed as she took a few steps forward and stopped just short of Luke's head. Now the agent was wishing that she had worn a skirt instead.

A bit of dust caused by the girl's shuffling feet had reached the agent's nose and his sudden sneeze had caught the attention of the three, especially the girl herself.

"Stand up with your arms in the air and drop your weapons," The girl had barked in anger.

There was a slight swish in the air and a quick shuffle of boots the moment the young woman spoke leaving Luke with the impression that she had drawn her knife from its leather sheath in her left thigh and had backed up a little as she readied her attack.

Sure enough, the moment the agent had drawn himself to full height (almost a full head above the girl's own but still shorter than the man with glasses) while dropping both his Desert Eagle and his Glock 18 machine pistol to the ground, he saw that she was holding a combat knife in her right hand as the said girl was poised for a quick slash across his neck.

'She's actually very sexy in that fur lined armor that clung to her body like a second skin,' Luke had thought while willing himself not to have another nosebleed. 'Too bad, she's got a stick up her lovely ass.'

"Tear, I don't think that man would attack us since he would have done so earlier if he was." The younger man with a cute but dirty face had told the girl. Luke had by then figured out to his horror that the young man was a Slime, a large gang of dirty primitives only found in this city.

"Ion has a good point, Mysterica. Sheath the knife for now, while I'll ask him some questions." This time, the eldest of the three had said with obvious authority as he slung his PSG-1 sniper rifle over his right shoulder.

The girl took one good look at the mystified agent and promptly sheathed her knife. She did however, get behind the red head and held both his hands against his back before he could even react.

"Alright, who're you and what are you doing here?" The man in blue military grade armor had drawn a taser from his own black back pack and was testing it as he spoke.

"Merry Christmas ta you too, pal. Name's David Copperfield and I'm lookin' fer my friends who promised ta meet me here," Luke lied as he had thought that they were members of Van's renegade force.

"Very funny. Although judging by your unkempt long red hair and somewhat familiar face, you must be Agent Luke fon Fabre. Just to be sure, what's the code word?" The man said as he had relaxed his stance and turned off his taser.

He had also looked sharply at the brown haired young woman behind the agent and she immediately let Luke go.

"It's Necromancer and before ya even ask, the color's blue." Luke had answered with confidence.

"That Peony, he still uses every available resource at his disposal jus' to make fun of me." The man said with a deep sigh and shook his head in resigned disgust. The other two had giggled at the spectacle as if they knew the history of the inside joke.

"I don't get it," Luke said as he had scratched his head in confusion.

"Then let me explain it to you, Luke. Back in the old days, both Peony and I liked to play massively multi-player online role playing games that were very popular back then. My avatar back then was that of a blue necromancer while his was a dashing blond paladin." The man was massaging the bridge of his nose while he spoke.

"I think I'm beginnin' ta understand the meaning of the 'password'. So who **are** you, guys?" Luke had by then picked up his guns from the grassy ground while the man was still explaining and wiped the dirt off it with his gloved hands.

"I'm Ion, she's Tear or Mysterica Grants if you would prefer, and he's Jade Curtiss." The youngest said gleefully as he had pointed at himself and his companions.

"Wait, Mysterica Grants?! How are you related to Van Grants?" Luke asked as he had slowly stepped away from the girl.

"I'll tell you later," Tear replied in a monotone.

"We don't have much time for idle chat anyway. Let's go," Jade had told all of them as he turned around and headed in the direction of the barely visible office buildings jutting from the dark horizon.

-oOo-

As they walked towards their shared destination, Luke had asked Jade on who Peter really was and what his true intentions were.

"If you have an ID scanner with you, scan this ID. This was Peter's, by the way." Jade then ordered as he had given Luke an ID card. The agent had taken his ID scanner from his back pack and slashed the ID card on its top edge, only to realize that nothing happened.

Tear then explained to the puzzled agent that Peter was actually her brother's security chief and main confidence man. It was his job to meet Luke then kill him while they were still in the open field.

She had also explained that their all of their IDs have secret electronic microchips, each one with a distinct alphanumerical code. It was those codes which helps them distinguish true agents from planted ones.

The brunette had even gave Luke her own ID card to prove her point. Jade and Ion had followed her example and gave their own cards as well.

Thus, Luke had scanned their IDs with different results:

Tear's ID made the scanner give off a soft hum as it had processed the card before the tiny light on its left side turned red and its little LCD screen showed the information hidden within.

She was an undercover agent for Texas Intelligence. The said info did make Luke's right eyebrow rise in suspicion which the girl pointedly ignored.

Jade's ID had made the scanner shake as it made a rumbling sound. As with Tear's ID, the light again turned red. Jade is an assassin working for Texas Intelligence, which made Luke release his breath in relief since he is on their side. The older man did ask about the sigh but the red head simply ignored him.

Ion's ID had the same results as Tear's and that he is a field agent of Texas Intelligence. Again, Luke's eyebrows had risen in suspicion but he took it back quickly when he saw a frown in the young man's face that was framed by the young man's long green hair which fell before his elf like ears.

From her position at the back, Tear could not believe that Luke had shared the same hairstyle with Ion, only with more spikes at the front. Satisfied with the results, the red headed agent had again kept the ID scanner in his back pack and they continued on their way to the side entrance of Van's base.

-oOo-

The quartet had walked through waist high grasses, rusted hulks of machinery, and ruined buildings, all of which while avoiding foot patrols, trike patrols, and roving gangs alike. Tear led the way as she had known the place the most or so she claims.

Along the way, Ion had explained to Luke that he was actually a Slime gang member who defected since Van had most of them slaving in his stronghold. Luke nodded quickly to show the younger man that he had understood.

-oOo-

An hour had passed before the four agents had arrived beside a concrete slab near Van's headquarters. The compound was surrounded on all sides by barbed wire. At its corners were guard towers with searchlights that illuminate the perimeter.

Dobermans with their masters patrol the outside perimeter. Within all this security measures was a single intact three-story building, with a fading sign proclaiming – "Bank of Greater Houston" above its six inch thick steel double doors.

Luke was about to approach the building when both Jade and Tear suddenly had pulled him back. The red head was about to complain when he had seen the spotlight shine down on the spot where he was a moment ago. Tear then said that she would get them inside the gang-king's domain.

"Luke, leave this job to me. Tear, pulling rank is the worst thing that you could do in this situation since Van himself isn't as easy to fool as his lackeys," Jade was saying as he had pulled out a video camera like device from his back pack and focused it at the perimeter fence.

Luke was puzzled on the older man's words but chose to ask for more information later.

After scanning for an ideal spot, Jade had told everyone to follow him quickly as he headed for the left side of the complex since there were some ruined buildings that would cover them from being seen from the guard houses.

The forty something assassin had pulled out some wire cutters from his own backpack, and used them to make an opening big enough for them to pass through.

He then led the team past the inner patrol and stopped at a dark spot in the building's side.

From his pack, he then drew a long barreled gun with a grappling hook attached to the end of its long and wide barrel. The grappling hook was launched and had gotten a good grip on the building's risen edge. The quartet then used the thin (yet strong) nylon wire to go up, one after the other.

Tear was the first to go up since she was the lightest, followed by Ion, Luke, and finally Jade. As soon as Jade had reached the roof with a little boost from his partners, he headed for a single structure at the middle of the roof.

The older assassin had pushed open an already loosened panel at one side, which was big enough for all of them to slip through.

-oOo-

Beyond the panel were a single steel door and a staircase leading to the floors below. On the door's face was a riveted plastic sign marked "Security". Jade had knocked on the door but there was no answer. He had tried again with similar results.

Finally, he calmly drew a lock pick from his right pocket and unlocked the door.

Inside was the lone male guard, lying face down on the floor with an overturned plastic glass, a few inches from the spread fingers of his right hand. Some signs of its iced contents had made a brown puddle at the floor.

Ion then explained that he had simply spiked the guard's drink of iced tea before he met with the other two, more than two hours earlier. Jade had hunkered down to the man's sprawled body and drew a billfold out of the fallen man's back pocket.

"Jade, return that money. It doesn't belong to you," Tear had told the assassin as if she would a child.

"Actually, Tear. This **is **my money. I gave him a bribe when we met outside the base during his lunch break, about eight hours earlier. I think I even overhead you talking to him about a 'special visit' about this time of night just as I was arriving." Jade was saying as he had already pocketed the money as he stood up with a casual smirk.

"What he and I were talking about is none of your business. Understand?" Tear's face (half hidden by her brown hair) was red in both anger and embarrassment. Oddly enough, Luke had felt his heart constrict a little when he heard that little tidbit but he ignored it.

"Whatever you say, Princess." The assassin had replied as he kept on smiling.

Both Ion and Luke had wisely kept quiet and simply fiddled with the controls of the monitoring video system. Either by good timing or just good luck, they found the ongoing footage taken from the Diving Room.

The footage had showed a team of divers rising out of the murky waters. One of them was holding a compact disk like device but is actually several inches thicker and has two rectangular "wings" coming out of its sides – an atomic detonator.

Luke had remembered what it looked like from the drawings Peony had given him during the meeting.

"That's the last of the detonators," The last diver to come out of the water had said to his colleague. "Get them to Master Van, hurry."

The other diver had scurried out of the diving bay as fast as his skinny legs could take him.

"Follow that man, search through every camera if you have to." Jade siad as he had also watched the earlier scene and there was a worried undertone in his speech that he was not able to hide through his ever present poker face.

Again, both young men had fiddled with the controls with desperation. Each one was hoping that they could find out where the detonators were hidden. Scenes quickly flashed by as the two operators only took a glance at each one before moving to the next if there was no sign of their quarry.

So far, the team had seen guardhouses with bored guards playing video games, sleeping quarters where some couples were having…never mind (Tear had actually covered Ion's green eyes with her white gloved hands during these adult scenes to the other men's amusement and the green haired young man's confusion), and dimly lighted hallways that were surprisingly empty.

At last, they had found a large room where the diver from earlier had just entered the door. Ion had panned the camera's view to the room's interior before gasping in surprise.

Everyone else had looked at the master screen only to gasp as well since in the center of the room stood the gang king - Van Grants himself.

In the gang-king's two sides was a lovely blond woman in her late thirties and a somewhat effeminate scientist with white hair. Jade had made a grimace as he recognized one of the people in the screen beside the warlord.

"Dist the Runny, why am I not surprised?" he said to himself.

"You know that fruit?!" Luke had almost screamed out loud if not for Tear's dainty hand on his mouth and her icy glare.

"Shh, quiet. Let's listen in and we'll talk 'bout that later." Tear replied for Jade's sake as she had Ion flip the switch for the hidden microphone and slowly turn its volume knob to the right.

From the room's speakers, they had heard the annoying nasal voice of Dist as it filled the room.

"…we have just gotten one more detonator, Master Van. We now have in our grasp- all six detonators and their corresponding warheads so we can achieve-" Dist was saying to his boss.

"Victory!" The light brown haired warlord roared as he raised the last detonator above his head in glee, water dripping from the said item's edges. "For years, we've been trapped in this hell hole while the Oil Barons and their ilk spend their lives in luxury. For years, we've been lying, cheating, and stealing our way to survive, while they just sit back and count their money flowing through their bank accounts. No more of that, now we will teach **them **on how to survive in a lawless world and if they won't cooperate, they will perish in the fires of their own making."

"Bravo, bravo. That's an excellent speech, my love." The woman, Legretta who Tear had explained was her teacher, the leader of the Rebeccas, her brother's lover and now his betrothed, had said while clapping her white gloved hands. "The Free Oil States, no the whole world will see you as a true leader. You will also live up to the hidden meaning of your name… as the one who will seize glory for Houston and its peo-"

Tear had turned off the monitor as she had enough of the sickening scene. "I know where they are. Follow me," she said with venom seeping through her tone.

She had quickly exited the room and they could hear her quickening steps as she went down the stairs.

The three men had tied up the unconscious man and hid him in the closet. They also planted two limpet mines on the wall of monitors and their controls, and set them for detonation in thirty minutes.

After they had finished, the three men had swiftly followed the young woman down the stairs and to their destination – the Vault Room according to Ion.

-oOo-

The three men had caught up with Tear just as the latter was nearing the door for the Vault Room. This time, Luke had showed the team that he could be useful too by successfully picking the lock with his lock kit.

Tear had entered first to fool the people still inside (if any) that no one would be stealing the detonators on their watch. Thankfully, the room itself was deserted.

Luke had picked up the precious items and stuffed them in Ion's nearly empty and dirty back pack.

The said Slime had pulled out three military grade body armors for Luke, Tear and himself from the electronically locked chest that he had left there, a week before.

He had also pulled out four M-4 assault rifles with grenade launchers attached under their long barrels, twelve concussion grenades for said launchers, eight spare ammunition clips for the assault rifles, and two CB Walkie Talkies so that the team could still coordinate their actions even when separated.

Jade then shushed everyone as he thought he had heard something while the rest donned their new body armors. His worst fears were confirmed when they heard quick footsteps coupled by clanking armor nearing them from the hallway.

The glasses wearing assasin had pulled out two grenades from his vest- a concussion grenade and a flash grenade and threw them at the hallway.

A loud bang and a flash of light later, he had ushered Luke and Tear out of the door before throwing more grenades – this time it was of the smoke variety.

"Tear, lead Luke to the main garage. Ion and I will head outside to draw their attention," The assassin said as he had gunned down more guards who were approaching them from the right.

"Luke, please be careful. We'll follow as soon as we can," Ion added as he had exchanged back packs with the older man after Luke had gotten some stuff from his backpack.

"Alright, jus' be careful out there too." Luke replied as he and Tear had run for the main garage. The young woman had shot down a few surprised guards along the way without even breaking stride or feeling any remorse for what she had done.

On the other hand, Luke had tagged a few more as he and Tear ran past an intersection where more guards had shown up, their guns blazing.

A concussion grenade thrown at the last minute had finally took out the remaining guards as they waited for a chance to shoot the escapees down as the latter were escaping.

'Jade and Ion, please be alright. I can nev'r forgive myself if you guys die on me,' Luke thought as he had followed Tear through the maze of corridors, their red and black armors clunking as they ran as fast they could.

* * *

Alright, that was interesting. Now, we get to the part where the group has to get out of Houston **alive**. As for how Luke had disposed of the note given to him early in the chapter, use your imagination.

By the way, Luke's a little perverted, isn't he? Then again, he was the one who called Tear's um...mammary glands - melons in one of the funniest skits of the game.

Also the "lie, cheat, steal" in Van Grant's speech is dedicated to Mr. Eddie Guererro of WWE fame. May he rest in peace.

Again, just read and enjoy.


	3. Escape from Houston

Alright, we now come to the final chapter of Mean Streets. Here's where the auto duels come into play along some more introductions. By the way, in here is the explanation on why I rated this fan fiction- M instead of T.

The gruesome scene shown below is more than enough to give sensitive souls, a recurring nightmare for a few nights.

I would also like to thank Magician of Megiddo for putting this story in his favorites.

Like the previous chapter, there will still be some good on-road as well as off-road action and humor in this chapter but I added a bit of angst to this as well, just a little bit.

With that fact out in the open, kindly read and enjoy.

* * *

**"You seem to have a nasty habit of surviving."**

**"Well, you know what they say about the fittest."**

- Kharmal Khan and James Bond, Octopussy

Chapter 3 – **Escape from Houston**

Tear had led Luke to a steel door leading to the stairway that itself led to the underground garage, just a floor above them. Both agents were already panting from the running gun battle earlier but they had willed themselves to continue or they may never run again.

Luckily, the chasing guards were so disoriented with the grenades the couple had thrown to lose the latter group that they had never noticed that their prey had used another route in their escape.

The pair then entered the poorly lighted garage with guns drawn and eyes alert. Tear had gone in first with Luke closely following her as he slowly closed the door behind him. A single click had confirmed that the door was shut tight while second click was heard after it was locked.

-oOo-

Back at the corridor, the brawny guards that were trying to shoot the agents of Texas Intelligence down were blinded temporarily by a flash grenade thrown by the red head just before he had disappeared from view.

As they were rubbing their eyes from the sudden flash, the chasing guards had also heard a slight metallic clink from somewhere followed by a long hiss as smoke began to fill the whole hallway. They had actually passed by the wooden door leading to the garage since there was just too much white smoke in the now foggy hallway to see anything beyond their noses.

By the time they had gotten out of the acrid smoke's effects after blindly running forward, the dum-dums had lost both agents in the process. The most senior in rank of the pursuers was so angry that his men had lost their prey; he had beaten up each and every one of his men until he was the only one still standing.

He then calmly walked to the nearest intercom system to tell the gang-king that the intruders had escaped their clutches.

-oOo-

Luke and Tear had crouched down behind a vulcanizing machine as they had spotted two lean guards talking to each other as the latter two had drunk Heineken beer straight from the can while sitting on a certain black car's hood.

The dingy garage also seemed to serve as a recycling plant of sorts since most of the other vehicles there were cannibalized. Various automobile parts and weapons were actually transferred to yet another set of vehicles that were waiting for their new appendages.

The black car itself is an Enzo Ferrari with two machine guns in front, a pulse laser at the turret above its roof and two micro-missile launchers with armor piercing rockets that were hidden at what had been the car's two rear air scoops.

It seemed that the weapons were being tested for possible use in the field since all of them were still visible at the moment.

The last two linked weapons were mounted on small pop-up turrets therefore they could be fired simultaneously or separately on three sides (front, back and side). All weapons could also be hidden for aerodynamic and stealth purposes only to pop out for combat use in six seconds.

Tear had commented that this was her brother's personal vehicle. He even named it the "Score Settler". Luke had to raise an eyebrow at the name given to this mean machine, which the girl was slowly getting tired of. Nevertheless, he asked the young woman to help him knock out the guards.

"Luke, knocking them out would only give us thirty minutes to escape. Maybe an hour if we're lucky," Tear replied in hoarse whisper, her armored arms akimbo.

"Please, Tear. We've had enough killing for one night. Besides, it would give me a chance ta use the stun gun that I was given back at HQ."

Tear had rolled her eyes at the real reason for Luke's insistence of just stunning the guards but changed her mind when she saw how excited the young man would be at using his new toy.

Thus, she had sneaked up on the approaching guard as the latter was telling his buddy that he was going to the little boy's room for a few minutes.

"Ugh." The first guard went down as Tear had lightly struck a pressure point on the man's right temple after grabbing him from behind. The other guard, alerted by the sudden commotion, was about to shoot the girl when he had felt a strong electric shock run through his whole body.

The guard had fllen to the floor, revealing Luke who was now retrieving the stun weapon's smoking prong and thin wire from the man's exposed back.

"See, it worked." The red head bragged as he had pulled one of the guards out of the car's way, ignoring Tear's visible eye roll. Luckily for them, the car just had a tune up; therefore both the driver side door and hood were still open.

A quick frisking of both guards not only yielded some cash, some hand gun ammunition, but also two Colt .45 Commander Pistols with full clips, and a set of car keys.

Tear had grabbed the keys from Luke before trying them on in the car's ignition switch and pushing the start button.

There was a bit of a grinding noise in the car's power plant before it was replaced by a steady hum as the flywheel inside spun at 3,000 rpm to provide the needed energy. Luke immediately had pulled down the hood in delight before running to switch on the garage's door opener.

After pushing the red switch, the red head returned to the now revving car and strapped himself to the gunner seat. Both agents had closed their doors as soon as Luke had strapped himself in.

As soon as the garage doors' upper edge had hit its highest point, more guards were revealed. A tense moment had passed between the occupants of the car and the armored guards, the latter numbering at ten heavily armed and armored members.

The said moment was broken when the whole base was rocked by multiple explosions. Luke had taken that moment to rake the guards with 50 mm machine gun fire. The latter group had split up as soon as those in the line of fire went down, their bodies holed and mangled by the high density slugs.

Tear then shifted gears and gunned the car to freedom. The remaining guards had tried to shoot them down with their mostly ineffective assault rifles.

After Luke turned on the stolen car's military band radio, he had heard a lot of excited chatter about a Texas Guard zeppelin attacking the whole base from above with missiles and heavy cannon fire. The said news was confirmed when he had seen and heard the explosions from somewhere to the west.

-oOo-

"Luke, bring out your PDA and detonate the radio controlled bombs I left behind at the garage while you were still opening the door." The former Rebecca had said as she used the pulse laser to keep the guards near the gate crouched on the ground.

Luke did as he was told and they had heard a distant boom as a cloud of smoke was seen leaving the opened garage door. They had passed through the gate with nary a peep from the confused and scared guards, all of them peeking from their respective hiding places within the driveway.

Back in the car, Luke was studying a map he took from the glove compartment and glanced back and forth between it and the road map shown on the GPS system. He then guided Tear on the best route towards Bay Town, where the Texas Guard has a well-equipped outpost.

Along the way, he had asked the girl on what was her relation to his nemesis- Van Grants. The brunette had answered that she was his sister and second in command of his personal bodyguards – The Rebeccas.

But the truth is, she was actually cloned from a dead Texas Intelligence agent named Natalia fon Fabre and then made in what could have been his dead sister's image in her adult life. The real Tear Grants was infected by tuberculosis early in her teens and had died weeks later.

Van had tried to get her to a hospital but was shunned in favor of some Oil Baron's teenage niece who was also infected by the same sickness. Since then, he started to hate the Oil Barons and all that they stood for.

After telling her story, Luke had felt some pity for his wife's killer but shook it out of his head since he and Tear had bigger problems to face. He did clutch Tear's free hand though and gave it a slight squeeze before telling her that she is not alone in her situation.

-oOo-

A few blocks away from the enemy's disabled base, Tear had nearly ran down a five foot one pink haired girl wearing white military grade body armor as the latter suddenly ran in front of them.

The former Rebecca had gotten out of the car and drew the Glock 418 that Luke had given her.

"If you were trying to kill yourself, there are a lot of other ways to do it than suddenly blocking our way." She said with gritted teeth.

But her angry expression had turned to surprise as the would be victim had looked up from her huddled position. Tear was so surprised that she had dropped her weapon to the cool asphalt.

"Oh, Tear. I'm so glad that I met you. Sync and I escaped from the perimeter base when there were reports of Texas Guard air units attacking the main headquarters. Legretta actually told us to run away as soon as we heard the explosions back at HQ," The pink haired young woman had said as she hugged her superior.

"Uh…yeah. Better go and hide, Arietta. I'll see you later," Tear replied as she had returned the hug and then led the girl in the direction of the ally way leading to one of the safe houses Van had made in case something went horribly wrong.

"Wait, Tear. Who's he? Your new boyfriend, perhaps?" The pink haired young woman asked with a slight smirk as she had taken a quick peak at the other girl's back as the red head was moving to the driver seat. "Oh no, Master Van is going to hit the roof when he learns that you took his car for a joyride." She added as she had recognized the vehicle behind the older girl.

Tear had no choice but to use the technique she used earlier on the guard before Arietta would report their whereabouts to her brother. She had picked up her pistol and hid it in her armor before half-carrying the younger woman on her shoulder.

The former Rebecca then moved herself and the girl to the gunner seat and placed the unconscious girl on her lap as she was strapping herself. Luke was waiting for his partner when he had seen both girls were heading to the idling car.

"Tear, why didn't we-?" Luke had stopped speaking for a second time when he saw Tear's face. The former Rebecca had tried to give him an icy stare but a single tear that escaped from her visible left eye had given him the opposite effect.

The red head had merely nodded in response and started the power plant in silence.

-oOo-

While Luke was putting the car on reverse after running into yet another blocked street, Arietta had woken up.

"What's the meaning of this, Tear? I thought you were my friend." The pink-haired girl was almost in tears at the thought of being betrayed by her favorite superior and older sister figure.

"Arietta, I-I'm sorry." Tear was having a hard time telling the younger girl the truth. The truth - that Van was going to kill thousands of people and may bring thousands more to their deaths, all for his dream of ruling Texas. "I will not ask for any forgiveness from you but at least listen to my side of the story."

"Alright, I can do that." Arietta answered as she had taken some nervous glances at Luke.

Tear then explained to Arietta -Van's real plan and how it would be bad for all of them in the long run. The young woman had pouted and was about to say something but kept her mouth shut for a brief spell.

For both Luke and Tear, the next few minutes seemed to last like hours before Arietta had finally given in and agreed to join their cause. Tear was so happy that she hugged the girl in front of her and even let some clear salty liquid to escape from her blue eyes just for that moment in her unbridled joy.

Bu the jubilation did not last long as a loud honk had surprised all three of them. From around the next corner was a long line of heavily armed and armored ten-wheeler trucks. On each truck's cab door was a painting of a black lion. Both Tear and Arietta had recognized the logo as those of Largo's trucker gang.

The six foot eleven battle hardened man is Van's second in command and is also in charge of the gang-king's most powerful fighting units – the Black Lions.

After awhile, a deep bass voice was heard in the car's radio. "Tear and the one called Luke, are you there?"

"Um, y-yes sir. We're here." Luke was shakily holding the microphone as the lead truck with two Vulcan machine guns in front and one blast cannon at its turret had stopped at the corner on his stolen vehicle's left as he replied.

The big man, with pointy black hair and driver of the said rig, was glaring at the driver of the black sports car as the former held his own microphone tightly.

"Listen, Luke. I'll only say these words once so don't make me repeat myself." Largo's calm voice that held a dangerous undertone had warranted the agent's full attention. "I too had my doubts about Master Van's plan to use nuclear weapons in his quest to become king."

"You too, Largo?" Arrietta said as she had grabbed the mike from the annoyed agent.

"Arietta, I hope that Tear had told you everything since nuking cities and other civilian as well as military targets only make battles seem too easy. It may end up with every country destroying each other with only a push of a button."

The red headed agent had used the given opportunity to snatch the mike back from the surprised girl.

"I guess that's true. So would ya join us then?" Luke asked in the hopes that the big man would say yes.

"No."

The agent's spirits had taken a nosedive while the leader of the Black Lions continued. "To me and my men, fightin' the Guard on even terms is a much better alternative than jus' blasting them without even seeing their battle scarred faces. **That** is the essence of a true battle – a meeting of opposing forces with one side emerging victorious."

Tear and Arietta were a little confused with Largo's speech but Luke had a good inkling of what was said thus he had replied. "I understand. I do hope that I get the chance of fighting you on even terms someday."

"As would I." Largo said before he had let a chuckle come out of his bearded mouth before adding. "Arietta, if you're worried about your boyfriend. He's with his little brother and the assassin. Thus, I can actually say that he's in very good hands."

The pink haired girl then grabbed the mike from the confused agent for the second time, her pale face radiating in joy.

"Really?!" She then did a bit of a double take. "Wait a minute. Sync's not my boyfriend. He's jus' a friend who happens to be a boy."

"Uh huh. Sure, kid." Largo replied as the lead truck had revved up and slowly turned left. "Alright men, let's go."

Largo had led his line of trucks up the dilapidated street before disappearing in the darkness, leaving behind a puzzled Luke, a fuming Arietta, and a now smiling Tear in their wake.

"Don't ya even dare ask, Red." The pink haired girl had snapped before the older man could even open his mouth. The red headed agent bit back a curse as he had taken another route for Bay Town, not noticing Tear had placed a white gloved hand on his right shoulder as her way of comforting him.

-oOo-

The Score Settler had entered a new district of Houston. Not much has changed from where they had been hours earlier except that there were no signs of life anywhere they looked.

The place was virtually a ghost town. All throughout the trip, their long range radio had also picked up some transmissions from Van himself. "This is the Commandant calling for anyone with information on my renegade sister and her little friends. You'll be sufficiently rewarded for your efforts."

"What he probably meant is that he will promise them some land of their own or something simil-whoa," Tear's comment was interrupted when Luke had suddenly stepped on the brakes as the black car was starting to slide to the right.

From what they could see in their headlights, the road was coated with a thick layer of river weeds, mud and something oily.

Arietta, who had been with the Slimes a few times in the past, had explained that the oily part consisted of canola cooking oil, some gasoline, and a bit of grease to be just slippery enough for a car to easily lose control.

She was puzzled on why the Slimes had not attacked them yet given Van's non-stop calls to find them via the radio. The pink haired convert had known that they were now passing by Slime territory as soon as they had turned the corner, a good ten minutes earlier.

Soon enough, a raggedly old man had approached them slowly so as not to slip in their own roadside "concoction". He was accompanied by two middle aged men who looked like they both need a bath and a change of laundry. The latter two were also armed with hastily made halberds and pikes.

"Greetings, Wild One." The old man said as soon as he had reached the idling vehicle. Looking at both Tear and Luke, he added. "You two must be the younger sibling of the almighty warlord and the lap dog of the Texan spooks."

Luke was about to retort angrily to being called a lap dog when Tear had shushed him. Arietta did blush at being called by her Slime given nickname.

"I meant no disrespect, agent of Texas Intelligence. I'm only dissatisfied with the ways and means of your organization but in this case, it's a necessity for us to work together." The aged Slime had continued with a small smirk.

"Um, then can we go?" Luke was so surprised with the fact that they were even not considered enemies by the old Slime that he had almost lost his voice when he finally spoke up.

"Yes…you can," The older male replied. "I know that Ion had joined your cause since he and I had our differences in opinion. But as long as your organization leaves us alone, we will not consider you as our enemy."

"Speaking of Ion, has he and our older friend passed through here earlier?" Tear asked as she herself had also found her voice right after Luke did.

"Yes, he was here with his older twin brother and the Unreadable One. That's why we did not heed your sibling's call to battle." The man then looked around before continuing. "Arietta, Sync has been worried sick for your safety. He may try to hide it behind an unconcerned mask but his green eyes tell the honest truth."

"That's Sync alright. I do hope we can meet him later. I'm a little worried for him too," Arietta had admitted as much as she saw the sincerity in the old Slime's eyes while trying not to blush.

The trio had said their good bye to the leader of the Slimes as Luke had shifted gears and depressed the accelerator.

As the image of the Slime leader and his two bodyguards, slowly disappeared in the darkness and their own dust cloud, Arietta had told Luke that the leader of the Slimes is actually Ion's and Sync's paternal grandfather.

The pink haired young woan then added that all three of them were orphaned at an early age and while she was taken care of by Legretta and other amazons, the twins were nurtured by the whole Slime tribe. Sync had joined Van's organization as a means to prove himself as did Ion for Texas Intelligence.

Luke had finally understood why Ion was so trusting of him when they first met. They had shared the same thing – the loss of a parent and being taken care of by other people.

-oOo-

As the black Ferrari was passing through a marshy flatland, some crunching sounds were heard by its driver and two passengers. Determined to see what was wrong, Luke had stopped the sports car to see what was wrong as he disembarked the car.

He then crouched down to scoop some tiny bits of charred wood and cement just behind the front left wheel. He looked around to find bigger bits of the same items around the car, all of them jutting from the reeds.

As the agent showed his findings to the other two, Tear had told him that this place was once a site for a housing development project.

Satisfied with the answer, Luke had dropped the charred bits and returned to his seat.

As Luke was about to turn the ignition key, all three had heard a man's rough voice coming from the radio's speakers. "Callin' the dumb ass agent of Texas Intelligence, I gotta sweet proposition fer ya."

Luke had grabbed the mike then answered, "Who're ya first, fig nut? I 'ave an important job ta do and I don't have time ta play games with two-bit hoods like you."

"Who I am is not important, shit head. You killed my big brother and now yer going ta pay dearly for it."

The radio went silent after the other party had stopped transmitting. Instead, the car's radar detected a small bandit going in Luke's direction from a distance of 500 meters and closing fast.

From the interposed map on the radar screen, Luke could see that the bandit was blocking the only way towards the east where their destination is located.

"Sorry girls but I have ta meet this guy head on so we can reach our goal," Luke said as he had powered up the car's engine. The red head then pushed the accelerator pedal as far down as he could manage.

The car's rear tires had spun rapidly before Luke deftly pushed the two paddles behind the steering wheel to start the second shifting of gears to "Drive."

The Enzo Ferrari had responded by shooting forward from its parked location towards the two pairs of head lights seen at a distance. Arietta suddenly pleaded Luke to go into a sudden stop immediately as she had recognized the area for some reason.

Luke did as he was told since Tear had seconded her former subordinate for still unknown reasons. The black sports car had made a squealing power slide and stopped just in time not to hit a field of spider mines whose gray tops jutted from the parts of the concrete roadway where the moon had shone on them.

The agent had his vehicle quickly back out of the laid land mines and watched in horror as the other vehicle had busted through the minefield from the other end, a hundred meters away. It was not slowing down even as the first few mines already did some damage to its front armor and tires.

Arietta had to bury her head in Tear's chest while the older girl had looked away at the gruesome scene.

The other vehicle (a Mazda RX-8 similar to the one in the redhead's dream) was slowly ripped to shreds by the spider mines' multiple explosions as the dropped weapons had clung to the Mazda's whole plastic and aluminum body.

The bits of plastic and metal ejected from the smoking vehicle had triggered a fratricide amongst the other previously laid mines and caused a series of even more ear shattering explosions around the careening vehicle. The resulting white smoke was thick enough to engulf the whole block.

This demonstration of demolition was capped by the vehicle itself being blown into a million pieces as its hidden weapons' payload (three 50mm armor piercing heavy rockets hidden in front) was ignited prematurely by a mine that went through the car's already thinned underside armor.

Through the explosion, a sheer cry of terror and subsequent release was heard by the occupants of the Enzo Ferrrari, making them all flinch in pure horror.

"What a gruesome way to die," Arietta had murmured as her reddish eyes were flooded with tears.

Luke had placed a gloved hand on the smaller girl's shoulder while Tear held the said girl closer to her own body. As Arietta had looked up to him, the male agent had simply replied. "To him, there's no better way."

He then guided the car past the burning wreckage and headed straight on to his objective, welcoming the darkness beyond the flame's reach.

-oOo-

Past the marsh, the roadway has now skirted an old drainage ditch before entering what was once a busy factory district. Thankfully, the radio had been quiet for the whole time since Luke and the girls still had trouble erasing from their minds – the gruesome death of the enemy duelist.

Tear had correctly guessed that the driver of the RX-8 was Peter's little brother and the fact that Luke was still living had angered him since he too was told of Peter's orders. She had told as much to the other occupants of the Score Settler.

As soon as the brunette had finished explaining, the radio crackled to life. "T-tear, i-it's me t-the Am-ambulance D-driver. I-I've heard a-about your g-gun ba-battle b-back in the b-base. Tell me if y-you like a qu-quick pa-patch up."

"Sure, let's meet at the corner in front of the convenience store where we used hang out." Tear replied her sultry voice dripping with honey flavored acid.

The former Rebecca then returned the mike with a shudder. "That old lecher; I'll teach him to cop a feel on me and get away with it."

Both Arietta and Luke had to laugh at that while the brunette led them to the meeting place.

The trio had waited for a few minutes before a white ambulance had parked itself on the other end of the street. A gray haired man in his fifties was obviously stuttering as he had greeted the three occupants of the Enzo Ferrari.

"H-howdy, f-folks. N-need a q-quick p-patch up? I c-can do hu-human a-and v-vehicles damages. So w-what wo-would it be?" The man said happily while his gray eyes had betrayed his own anger at the embarrassing speech impediment. He had stepped closer to the three, hoping that they would fall for his elaborate trap.

"I would choose… this!"

Tear had quickly charged at the nearing man and kicked him hard at his groin. She even placed a karate chop at his left temple as the latter had fallen to the ground, groaning all the way. She then had Luke and Arietta tie him up to the nearest lamppost before scavenging his vehicle.

The three heroes had found enough ammunition for their hand guns and even the Score Settler's small bore and missile weaponry. They then took as many boxes of ammunition as they could carry and place them in the car's front trunk.

After they had finished, the ambulance's radio had barked to life. "Hey, A.D. have you found 'em yet? Answer me. I'm getting tired of waiting for your slow and incoherent replies."

Luke had decided to anger his nemesis further by telling him in a stutter to go to hell and stay there instead. Tear and Arietta had rolled their eyes both at the agent's childish attitude and stale sense of humor.

"Very well. I'll make sure that whoever you are will pay dearly for insulting me." The gang king replied as he had swiftly cut the communication line from his end.

-oOo-

After reaching yet another pot holed street with the surrounding buildings just as holed as the street in question, the targeting computer made a small beep as its LCD screen showed a target somewhere in front of them. The computer had identified the possible threat as an unarmed pedestrian and instantly re-evaluated its own findings.

Luke had slowed the car down as the headlights had brought the figure's outfit to light – a traditional black and white habit, dark stockings, combat boots, and finally a combat vest worn over the habit as the figure squinted at the glare of the headlamps.

The dark skinned young nun was waving at them to follow her to a ruined filling station.

As Luke coaxed the car to follow the running nun, his head had ached a little. It was as if parts of his lost memories were coming back with a vengeance.

The agent had just raised a gloved hand when both his companions had asked him if they would drive instead before replying that he is alright.

When the Score Settler had finally arrived at the rendezvous point, the nun had peeked in the car through the driver side window.

"Hey, Luke. Are ya alright?" the nun asked, her tanned face filled with concern.

"Uh, yeah. It's just a minor headache, no biggie. Just who're you?" Luke was still holding his head with his right hand as he said this.

"You don't remember moi? I'm Anise Tatlin, the famous Armadillo sister and your fiancée." The young woman had answered, tittering as she finished.

"What the fuck?! I was already married fer god sakes." Luke then banged his head on the steering wheel in his frustration before forcefully slammed by the former Rebeccas back to his leather seat. The car's horn did make a few toots that had broken the stillness of the night.

"Is there somethin' that you're not telling us, Luke?" Tear's blue eyes were glaring daggers at the still ranting agent while her tone had turned ice cold.

Arietta, on the other hand, was sporting a Cheshire grin as she finally had something to tease her former superior with.

"Actually, I was jus' joking. I'm actually one of Luke's contacts when he did some investigatin' here," The nun had told them as she bowed her head in apology upon sensing a slight chill in the atmosphere. "Sorry 'bout Natalia, Luke."

By then the red head had calmed down and kept quiet. His hunched body had lied over the black steering wheel before snapping out of his reverie.

Luke then told the other girls that Anise's code name is Miss Moneybags since she still dreamed that a rich dreamboat would sweep her off her feet and out of the dingy convent.

"Hey, a girl's gotta dream, right?" Anise replied with her arms akimbo.

Three pairs of headlights coming from in front of the idling car had blinded all of them for a moment before Anise had realized what was going on. She quickly opened the unlocked driver side door and jumped on Luke's lap.

Two cars and a T-Rex reversed trike were headed straight for them. With some effort, Luke had managed to close the door while both Anise and Arietta had powered up the car's weaponry.

The metallic green Toyota Yaris had taken the lead as its rocket launcher started belching its 20mm payload.

Luke had already grabbed the wheel from Anise and had put the car in reverse while Arietta had returned fire with both the pulse laser and the micro-missile launchers respectively in quick succession.

The diminutive gunner then alternated with the two weapons as she had tried to hit the rampaging car and its friends. The Yaris was taking hits in its front headlights and windshield, but the driver shook it off like it was nothing.

The Ferrari itself got a glancing hit near the front wheel but was otherwise alright. It was only when the Ford Escape with its recoilless rifle and the T-Rex with its anti-tank gun joined the battle that odds were now against the four people in the Ferrari.

Shells and rockets had rained down on the sports car getting some hits but mostly holing the pavement.

A sudden boom from behind the Ferrari was heard and the T-rex was obliterated instantly. This was followed by a whirring sound of two Vulcan machine guns that were hitting the bigger car at its vulnerable points, disabling it completely.

The Yaris was about to escape when it was finally taken out by a combination of machine gun fire, Vulcan machine gun fire, blast cannon rounds, and a pulse laser beam.

After the battle, a blue Mack sleeper cab over (Tartarus) armed with blast cannon at its turret and two Vulcans at its front had come out of the darkness and parked itself at the Ferrari's right side did the four people inside the car let out a collective sigh of relief.

All of the truck's weapons were still smoking from recent use.

Three people had disembarked from the truck's cab to check if the earlier four were not hurt or injured. Two of them were twins who were both decked out in military grade armor.

The only way to distinguish them is through the color of the armors – one wore black while the other wore green and the opposite expressions they wore on their faces (one was smiling while the other was actually scowling). With them was an older man also in armor and carrying an M-4 assault rifle.

"Jade, Ion. I'm so glad to see you guys again," Luke exclaimed as the four had exited the car and even got a good look at the young man in black armor with them. "Lemme guess, you're Sync."

"Yep, that's-" Sync's reply was stunted by a strong tackle by the pink-haired girl. Both had fallen to the ground and were smiling shyly at the relief that neither were hurt or killed since they had last seen each other.

"Well, it seems that we have to leave the love birds alone while we continue our mission." Jade had remarked with a straight face. The immediate result was both young adults standing up with their backs to each other.

"Not funny, Curtiss." Sync had spat out as his face turned crimson. Arietta had remained silent but her face turned into the same shade as Sync's.

"Hmm, you're cute. Are ya loaded?" Anise had broken the brief silence that followed as she interrogated the other green haired man about her age. Ion simply blushed while shaking his head.

"Let's save the drama for later. Right now, we have to get to Bay Town on the double." Tear said as they had entered the vehicles. This time, both Arietta and Anise had joined Ion, Sync and Jade into the dark blue sleeper cab over while Luke and Tear entered the car.

The two vehicles had continued on their way west, leaving behind the wrecked vehicles of the Fuegos as the latter vehicles continued to burn and as such provided the needed light to the devastated block.

-oOo-

The night sky above Houston was briefly illuminated in shades of orange and yellow as several flares were launched to the sky and exploded one after another.

Tear had recognized this as the sign that her brother was very serious in his search for them. She told both Luke and Jade to be doubly careful now since every gang in the city was now mobilized to find them, dead or alive.

"Grants must be very annoyed by our abilities to escape almost every trap that he had laid for us," Jade replied in the airwaves, his voice a little tinny coming from the radio's speakers.

"Yes, more so since we have detonated enough plastic explosives to cripple his own headquarters for a whole month." Tear was saying with uncharacteristic glee in her tone.

"Heads up, everyone. We've got company, about eight or nine cycles from all points of the compass." Sync chimed on the airwaves. Sure enough, eight Harley Davidson cycles had shown up from both behind and in front of them.

The high pitched whines from their power plants were unmistakable as they were heard from almost every direction.

"Hmm, they must be the Knights of the West. May I talk to them?" Tear asked the red headed agent as she closed her hand on the radio mike.

"Uh…sure." Luke was puzzled on why Tear would even ask permission from him just to radio the enemy.

"Thanks," Tear responded with a smile. "Alright, you dirty faced hags. Its payback time for us since you had cheated us out of our victory back in the Houston inter-gang auto duel championships."

"My my. Little Mystearica is still crying foul over trivial things. Why don't you and your fellow Rebeccas just admit that we're better than you are." A woman's honey toned voice was heard through the speakers.

"That's it, you bitch. We're taking you down," Tear said as she had failed to control her temper before replacing the mike with a slam.

"That's telling her, Tear. I'll even help you out." This time, it was Arietta's tinny voice that was heard from the speakers.

The lead Knight had started the battle by strafing the car with a blast from her vehicle's light laser. Tear had fought back with a pulse laser blast that had blasted the cycle's front wheel.

The cycle had flipped over instantly and its driver was knocked out when her helmeted head had hit the concrete road surface.

Arietta, who had taken over the gunner seat in the Tartarus, had blasted one of the opponents behind the truck with a strike from the blast cannon. Thus, just seconds after the battle has started, two of the cycles were already taken out of the fight.

The battle underneath the concrete overpass had continued on with the car and truck taking hits from numerous opponents while eliminating their opponents, two or three at a time.

Soon, only three cycles were left and they were reinforced by yet another T-Rex reversed tricycle with a long aerial antenna behind it.

After two of the cycles were crippled, the driver of the tricycle had jumped off her ride and hitched a ride in the escaping motorbike. The trike was now on a collision course with the car.

Every one had tried to hit it with all of their available weapons but the tricycle had become much more maneuverable than when it was driven by a human.

Before either Luke or Tear made peace with each other and the world in general as they held each other in their armored arms, the Tartarus had already knocked the kamikaze tricycle out of the way while almost all of its occupants had jumped out the opened gunner door.

The savage bump of the Tartarus' front bumper had actually activated the hidden detonator within the tricycle's hidden compartment and both trike and truck were turned into cinder by the explosion that followed.

"Jade! Nooo!"

Luke and Tear had slowly gotten out of the Score Settler, neither of them speaking with the others or even to each other.

From where they had landed, Anise had quickly hugged Ion with Arietta doing the same to Sync. Both girls were sobbing loudly while the green haired twins had soothed them as much as they could.

Tear had also leaned on Luke's armored shoulder as she tried to stem the tears that were threatening to come out in a rush. She had choked a sob as Luke calmly ran his gloved hand down her back. The agent himself was aghast at the death of a valuable friend.

Luke had wished that it had been him who had died instead but with the detonators in his possession, it would mean that their mission was a failure and that thousands of people would pay with their lives for it.

"Alright then, all donations to my funeral will have to be in cash since I'll really need a lot of it." A familiar bass voice had broken the monotony of sobs and cackling of the still raging fire.

"Jade?! You're alive?!" The shaken group then saw a lanky silhouette emerge from the burning profile of the two vehicles.

"Of course, I'm alive. I haven't been living as a mercenary for twenty years just to die in a clumsy attempt to kill you, y'know." The man had already stopped just in front of them and adjusted his glasses slightly while giving a look of superiority to Luke.

"Let's kill him," Luke said to the other two young men in a hoarse whisper. Before he and Sync could make another step, both Tear and Arietta had buried their elbows in the young men's gut.

The young men had made a brief stream of swear words under their breath as they tried to regain their breathing while clutching their sore stomachs.

"Well, since the lover's quarrel is apparently over. Let us make haste for the Cab Man's hideout since I'll need something to replace my beloved Tartarus," Jade said as he had entered the Enzo Ferrari's driver side door.

"Is he for real or am I crazy?" Anise had leaned closer to Ion and whispered in his reddening ear.

"The answer to that question, Anise… is yes." Ion had whispered back while trying to hold back a giggle.

-oOo-

'The Enzo Ferrari wasn't made for this kind of ferrying people,' Luke was thinking as he had placed his scuffed boots on the car's left micro-missile launcher base. Sync did the same to the other one while Ion and Anise were crouched in between them.

The latter two were actually leaning on the car's rear windshield while also holding on to the turret base. Only Tear and Arietta were sitting in the gunner seat while Jade had driven the car at a sedate twenty miles an hour.

The black car had used every route to avoid the gangs that were still hunting for them in the various streets, alleys, and intersections. One time, the said car had nearly collided with a dirty yellow taxi as they tried to avoid yet another hostile gang blocking their way, nearly toppling over the hitchhikers to the waiting cold concrete.

The taxi driver had left the safety of his vehicle to offer to the newly formed team some help.

The Rebeccas were a little miffed at the old man since they knew that he was an independent. Being an independent in Houston meant, being able to switch sides at his or her convenience.

Jade had told his companions that taxi driver could be trusted since he himself had known the latter for a long time now. The Cab Man then led them to his nearby base for the needed repairs after the four hitchhikers had gotten in his taxi.

Once inside the safety of a dead end street that was closed off with a wired fence, the team was pleasantly surprised to see children as young as eight years old happily helping out in the rearming of the car's weapons and re-patching of the vehicles' laser resistant outer armor.

Jade had also borrowed the white ambulance that the one of the Cab Man's posse had found while scrounging for food and gang related information. Tear and Arietta had recognized the battered ambulance as the one used by the perverted Ambulance Driver and asked the old man about the vehicle's owner's whereabouts.

"Well, he said that the driver must 'ave been long gone since there wasn't anyone aroun' when he arrived." The Cab Man had told them as he clapped his hands twice to signal that the work was over and it was time to head back to the shelters.

Thus when they finally left, almost all of the team have strengthened their resolve to stop Van Grants and finally let the gangs have their desired freedom.

-oOo-

After the convoy had left the Cab Man's base for ten minutes or so, Sync had told them that the only way through to their destination was by passing through the Psycho-Delic neighborhood. He had explained that Psycho-Delic were a violent sadistic gang of punks and staunch allies of Van.

As soon as the convoy had entered the decrepit neighborhood of the said gang, the neighborhood itself sprung to life. Bonfires were lit on top of houses and buildings. Sentries had jumped from roof top to roof top as they had carried their messages. Gongs and musical drums made from empty steel drums were pounding to a frantic beat.

The convoy had tried to avoid a battle and a trap by turning wherever they could, to no avail as the place was chock full of unwashed punks in drug induced euphoria.

On their latest path, a ten inch thick metal barred barrier had clanged into the pavement behind them offering no means of escape from that direction. Their only choice was either to go straight forward, turn right or turn left.

After a bit of a pow-wow between the occupants of the vehicles, they had decided to turn right.

The narrow street itself winded erratically and they seemed to be descending a steep hill. According to their map, there was supposed to be a bridge at the bottom of the hill. To their shock, there was none since the span itself was missing.

Luke had panicked a bit before Tear pointed out that the Score Settler has Jet Assisted Take Off units in its undercarriage for situations like this. Thus when the sports car had reached the higher end of the archway, the girl had activated the JATO units.

The sudden push from below had enabled the car to reach the other side of the bridge and roar away as soon as its rear tires had touched the cracked pavement.

The Ambulance (now christened as Medic One) had also engaged its own JATO units and duplicated the preceding car's jump. It did have a humorous after effect though.

As the Psycho-Delics watching the show had slowly began to applaud, cheer and even throw a few beer cans their way, most of the occupants of Medic One were pushing each other away just to puke at the hastily opened van's right window and briefly opened rear door.

-oOo-

The convoy was now about a mile away from the Bay station outpost. From what they could see across the marshes was that the Texas Guard has kept its border patrol at a twenty four hour/ seven days a week readiness.

Even now at past midnight, the base was still functioning and its motorized patrols still kept watch over the small area it protects. It did not have as many troops as the other outposts around Houston but the hundred plus troops themselves were well equipped and battle ready.

The outpost's fire power was also consisted of M-60 mortars, some heavily armed and armored ground vehicles, and even two attack choppers for aerial fire support.

Suddenly a slight droning sound from above was heard by everyone. Anise had radioed Tear that the sound came from a flying craft that usually patrol their convent, despite the calls by the other occupants of the van not to break radio silence.

Sure enough, the light from over head had shone on them.

The flying machine behind the spotlight was a grasshopper or a hybrid form of a car and a helicopter. Almost immediately, the grasshopper had launched its deadly payload of 50mm rockets and followed it up with a few beams from its twin laser on its front.

The convoy had tried their best not to hit each other as they evaded the rockets and laser beams. They had also returned fire to the best of their abilities since the ground vehicles zigzagging along with the grasshopper pilot's remarkable evasive skills had made it difficult for the heroes to get a bead on the flying vehicle.

After a while of trading lasers beams and sub-sonic projectiles, the grasshopper was hit at its tail rotor and parts of its undercarriage causing it to lose control and then crash on a side of a tall building.

Gravity had taken hold of the burning wreck on its way down to the pot holed street below where it exploded into flames.

-oOo-

With an end of the line feeling in their rapidly beating hearts, the convoy had casually cruised their way on the final stretch towards the Bay Station outpost. Luke had somehow regained some of his memories as he glanced at the now familiar surroundings that quickly passed by his window.

He had remembered that in the daytime, the marshy fields were filled with sunflowers and wild ducks but now, only searchlights that illuminate the barbed wire fences. If they were not in a hurry, they would have listened to frogs croaking and some honks from disturbed waterfowl.

All of them could actually see the outpost's lights on the far side of the border, but Van, in response had also militarized his side of the border. Now there were guard houses and bunkers at the border and they were placed on high alert.

The team knew that this is the make or break part of the mission and they have to give it their all just so they could finally get out of Houston in one piece.

-oOo-

As the convoy had neared the small one story square building that is Van's border checkpoint, its occupants had seen nothing extraordinary. The guardhouse at their right had its spotlight directed at the field in front of it. At its left was a barn that had seen better days. The cemented road goes on beyond the checkpoint, across the marsh into the Guard outpost just a half mile away.

Before the team could have pulled off their escape, an alert sentry had fired his AK 47 assault rifle straight in the air. Immediately, groups of heavily armed and armored men had spilled out of the guard house and checkpoint to form a line blocking the whole road.

Moreover, the spotlight situated at the guard house had now shined on them nearly blinding the team. Both Luke and Jade had stopped their vehicles, each of them awaiting the enemies' next move. From their radios' speakers, someone had excitedly shouted – "Bring out the tank!"

From the barn doors, something huge and lumbering slowly emerged. When it was finally illuminated by the various street lights from the entire compound as it had parked a hundred meters in front of the convoy, Luke could not believe that their final opponent was a hastily armored school bus with a tank gun tacked in the middle of its spacious roof.

"Well, Jade. Do we rush the guards or take out that…that thing?" Luke said on the radio.

"Well, I'd rather make a run for it but if that tank gun gets us…" The bespectacled assassin replied.

Luke had known the answer to that as he fired the linked machine guns at the monstrosity in front of him while Tear had alternated between the pulse laser and the micro-missile launchers.

The Score Settler had also moved to its right to take advantage of its opponent's clumsiness as the latter vehicle could not turn the large weapon far enough around its limited traverse axle.

A moment later, Medic One had joined in on the battle as the Tank was turning its weapon on the smaller vehicle.

A single round of the tank gun had demolished the small building where the car had hidden itself for a while. Bits of rocks, concrete, and steel battered the car as it returned fire with its weapons.

The bus was pretty much shot up as it remained stationary in its position, unlike its more nimble opponents. Pieces of metal and plastic had flown in all directions as its armor was slowly shredded layer by layer.

One of its gunners was even killed after a recoilless rifle High Energy Anti Tank round had blown a large breach in the bus' second layer of armor inwards near his sitting position.

The crippled bus then turned slowly to the right just to keep up with the two opponents only to have both its driver and gunner be gunned down by machine gun fire.

Two flights of micro missiles had even pierced the bus' tank gun's armor near its magazines and the whole vehicle exploded like a lit firecracker.

In their shock at the defeat of the most powerful vehicle in their arsenal, the line of men blocking the gate had collapsed like a house of cards.

The men were actually stumbling over each other as they ran for their lives while screaming in terror. Luke and the others had simply passed them all by as they continued their way to the marsh.

-oOo-

As the convoy had passed the marsh at a cruising speed of sixty miles per hour, Luke and the others saw a mob of torch bearing thugs that were running in the opposite direction.

Their holed leather boots had made desperate splashes in the water as the said group also ducked from tracer rounds fired from the outpost's concrete bunkers.

An assault chopper had covered the convoy for the last few hundred meters only leaving when they had pulled up inside the base's front gate. The team had seen a blond man in a military uniform running towards them from the safety of the buildings as they themselves had disembarked from their vehicles.

-oOo-

After some introductions on the possible new recruits of Texas Intelligence, Peony asked had the team if they had the detonators.

"Of course, we wouldn't be here if we did not." Jade had replied for Luke's benefit.

"I wasn't asking you. I was askin' Luke here," Peony said as he had pulled the red head to himself and gave the latter a noogie.

"Colonel!" Both Luke and Tear shouted in unison and the blond colonel had reluctantly let the red head go.

"Alright, alright. Now for the two pretty young ladies and Ion's look alike, come with me." Peony said as he had gestured at the three mentioned. "The rest of you head for the debriefing room on the double."

"Yes, sir." Luke and the others then ran towards the building where a whirlwind debriefing had awaited them.

"As for you three, how would you like ta help us bring Van down a peg or two and maybe even bring peace to Houston?" Peony had glanced down at the three people remaining.

"Sure, he's a real pain in the ass for sometime now. Right, guys?" Anise was the first to speak before turning to the other two.

"I guess so," Arietta said as she had cocked her head in confusion.

"He needs to get his priorities straightened out," Sync added as he had crossed his arms.

"I guess that's a yes. Anise Tatlin, reportin' for duty." Anise said as she saluted crisply.

"Alright, cutie. Follow me and we'll make those dreams come true then," Peony replied as he had led the three to the bullet ridden black building where the others had gone in earlier.

The whole team including Anise, Arietta, and Sync were flown to Tahiti a week later for a well deserved two week vacation.

Unfortunately, for the red headed hero, he was not told that everyone else had actually followed him and Tear there. Thus what happened in the islands would be the subject of yet another (short) story.

* * *

Since this ending sucks so much, the short story I told you above is actually the epilogue of this tale. There won't be any action though just some fluff, laughs, and a few family moments.

Again, read and enjoy.


	4. All's Well that End's Well I think

This is it, we have now come to the final chapter of Mean Streets and the Anime Car War series as a whole.

Like I said last chapter, there won't be any action on this one but instead I added a dash of drama, a few drops of family bonding, a tablespoon of fluff, and a cup of humor.

All in all, a cute ending to a fan fiction series that had its ups and downs within the past two years since its original inception.

Again, I do not anything other than this story which was adapted from the last Car Wars game book of the same title.

The Combat Corporate Jet 3 - Raven was borrowed without permission from the Car Wars website. My sincere apologies to those involved in creating it for doing so. Almost forgot, I don't own Federal Express either.

As for the quote below, call it as an excuse to borrow a memorable line from one of Miss Rumiko Takahashi's equally memorable manga and anime series.

Just read and enjoy this chapter while I reminiscence about the fun two years I had here in Fanfiction Net.

* * *

**"The woman I love, Kozue...burns with jealousy, leaps to conclusions, cries, and turns to ice but when she laughs...the world is mine." **- Yusaku Godai, Maison Ikkoku

Epilogue – **All's Well that Ends Well… I think**

Two days after the night raid of Van Grants' main base in Houston, Luke had taken Tear to his mansion in Palestine, Texas to see his mother- Suzanne fon Fabre.

Mrs. Fabre had actually called up her only son the night before as she had gotten ill due to work related stress and she wanted her to see her little boy home.

As soon as the black Enzo Ferrari, now renamed "Black Beauty" by its new owners, had pulled up to the mansion's front door, an excited Suzanne tightly embraced her sometime visiting son that she missed dearly while the Beauty's owners were exiting the sports car.

"Are you the girl who had caught my little one's heart?" She asked Tear while ignoring Luke's loud outbursts at being called "little one".

The young woman was so shocked by the brazenness of the question that she was not able to answer the question at all before they were led to the large study room.

After the maids had closed the double oak door leading to the study room, the anxious mother of one finally confessed to the two visitors that she had figured out the whole truth from Peony while Luke was still on his way to Houston.

It was to their good fortune that all three of them were sitting in the room's sofa set since both agents' legs felt a bit wobbly all of a sudden.

"I actually met Natalia years before and easily thought of her as a loving daughter in law. It is sad that things had gone horribly wrong due to your brother's thirst for revenge," The older woman continued as she played with her red hair near where some gray strands were visible.

"That may be true, Mrs. Fabre but please look at it this way. Through Luke and me, both your son and daughter in law had come back to you." Tear said as she grabbed the older woman's left hand and held it in her own.

"Actually, both of you are somewhat different from the ones you replaced. Still, the fact that you're still willing to make this place your home after every mission and maybe even make one of my wishes come true is more than enough to please me." She answered as she placed her other hand above the younger woman's.

"Um, Mother. What wish were you were referring ta?" Luke asked while he was scratching his head as he saw the strange gleam on his mother's sea green eyes.

"Why having grandchildren, of course. What else could it be, my son?" The elderly matriarch of the Fabre family answered with a serene smile as she had released Tear's frozen hands from her slightly wrinkled own.

Luke's lower jaw fell sharply as his brain finally registered what his mother had just said. Tear was also blushing madly as she stammered an explanation that having children would have to be discussed and planned after they marry. That is, if they do plan to marry anyway.

"That's alright. I can wait, just make sure I can get two grand kids in the next five years and I will be the luckiest woman in the world."

"Um…yeah, so what's for lunch since I'm starving to death here?" Luke said as he had retrieved his jaw from where it fell on the floor and was now rubbing his white T shirt where his stomach should be.

Without Luke realizing it, it was that very action that raised the said article of clothing just enough for the two females to get a glimpse of the six-pack on the red head's abdomen.

Both women were somewhat annoyed at Luke's lack of mannerisms and had jointly thought that they should teach him some manners before he could pass it on to the next generation.

After eating an equivalent of a full course meal for lunch, Suzanne was called by one of her maids as some of her company's bigwigs had visited her home for an impromptu business meeting. The red headed matriarch then sent her maid- Julie to escort both Luke and Tear to their rooms.

-oOo-

After they were led to their respective rooms, Luke went to the spacious guest room where Tear was staying both to apologize for his mother's candid revelations and to check if she was alright. He knocked twice on the maple door's white frame and waited.

A minute later, Tear herself had opened the door. Her widening blue eyes as she saw who had knocked at the door quickly brought warning signals to the red head's brain. Luke had stammered that he would come back at a later time while he turned around.

But before the young man could take another step, a lithe hand had caught his own in mid swing.

"Please, let's talk." Tear was still holding Luke's right hand as she waited for his answer. Her mind was caught in a whirlwind of confusion as she tried to asses her own feelings for the young man standing before her.

"Alright," Luke replied as he went in the guest room and closed the door behind him.

The brown haired former Rebecca followed him before changing directions at the last minute. This was because the red head had sat on the luxurious satin bed in a hunched position and looked at her intently. She finally sat down on the sofa placed in the room's beige wall, to the right of the bed.

"Luke, let me finish before you say anything, alright?" The girl was having trouble looking into the young man's light green eyes for some reason.

"Sure, I've got a few things to say anyway."

"Luke, you're the most wonderful while at the same time the most exasperating man I had ever met." Tear began her rant. She immediately showed Luke her opened left hand as he was about to protest. "It's too soon for us if we just chose to marry since we need plenty of time to even know each other more."

She continued baring her soul as Luke himself kept quiet for the whole time and continued listening. "I mean, I've only just met you just three days ago. Yet a small part of me still acts as if we have met for years, so I'm really confused right now. More than that, your mother already thinks of us as a couple and that simply compounds my personal troubles even more. I just don't know what to tell her or what I should even do for that matter."

Tear had by then burst into tears as she buried her face in her hands. Luke was startled for a moment before he stood up and laid an arm on the young woman's frail shoulders as he sat beside her.

"Tear, call me crazy but I feel the same way. I mean, when I was resurrected only four months ago, I didn't even know I was actually married to Natalia. I only thought that I cannot marry her or anyone else since my life is just too dangerous and hectic for me ta even settle down in the first place."

He paused for a moment when the girl suddenly looked up into his green eyes that were filled with sincerity while her blue ones were still brimming with tears. "So yeah, I'm cool with your idea that we 'ave to know each other better first."

Tear was about to smile as she wiped her tears with her right hand when Luke continued.

"Still, Mom's got a weak constitution which partly explains her hurry ta have us marry each other and even have kids. The other part is that I lost my dad early on in life so it was just her and me…and Pere back then. So having grand kids would definitely relieve her of all the loneliness and emotional suffering that she had gone through all these years."

Luke had already used his right arm to pull the girl to him, which the latter (to his mild surprise) did not even object to. "What I'm saying is… while I agree with you; we still haveta give in to her wishes. Who knows, maybe it's the best decision we'll both be making anyway."

"Alright then, I'll agree to an arranged marriage between us just to fulfill your mother's wishes but we will still hold off the wedding itself until we learn enough of each other to make this engagement a reality. Is that ok with you, Luke?" Tear had pulled herself out of the red head's warm embrace as she suddenly looked back at him with a determined stare.

"Yes," Luke then stood up before kneeling down on one knee in front of the surprised young woman. "Actually, a maid gave me this to me while I was on my way here along with Mom's written request."

The young man suddenly found the brown carpet very interesting as his face heated up at what he was going to do next.

He shakily pulled out a small red velvet box from his black trouser's back pocket and opened it in front of the girl, all of which while still staring at the intricately carpeted floor.

"Um, ah... M-mysterica G-Grants, w-would y-you m-make m-me the h-happiest man in t-the wo–world and b-become m-my w-wife?"

Within a few tense seconds, he waited for her answer. Even though the words he had just spoken was previously memorized from the folded brown paper note that came with the box where a single diamond ring was hidden inside, he still hoped that he had not made a fool of himself in the process.

What he heard later was laughter that tinkled like wine glasses in a celebrated toast, laughter that made his own soul tingle in excitement as his mother may have been right about Tear all along.

"Yes I will, Luke. Although, I'm sure that diamond ring was actually from Mrs. Fabre herself but arranged marriage or no, I'll still remain by your side." She then lifted the young man's head with her left hand on his chin before kissing him fully on his lips.

After they separated and the red head returned to his seat, Luke surmised. "Y'know, Tear. I think it's the end of the world."

"Oh and why's that," The girl replied as she had raised a thin eyebrow as she slowly returned to her sitting position beside the red head.

"I was the one who was supposed ta kiss you not vice-versa," Luke replied as he slowly stood up.

"Details, details. We're engaged anyway, so it doesn't matter who kissed who." She said as she waved his complaints off with her right hand.

With a laugh, the red headed agent planted a quick kiss on the brunette's lips before running out the door.

Luke only stopped after he had entered and locked himself in his own room, just down the hall from the guest room, in fear that his new fiancée would whoop his ass when she did catch up to him.

-oOo-

Dinner was a quiet affair since both Luke and Tear were reluctant to tell Suzanne that they were now officially engaged.

Suzanne herself was puzzled at first since she was so certain that her plan to marry both Luke and Tear had been set in motion once her maid- Rina had given her son the engagement ring.

It was only when she saw Tear trying to hide her left ring finger from her view that she had realized that her plan had actually worked. All she had to do was to make sure the poor girl would feel like that she and her son were not railroaded into marriage just for her own sake.

-oOo-

That night, when Tear was about to turn in for bed, there was a gentle knock on her room's maple door. The young woman promptly stood up, the black T-shirt she had borrowed from Luke fluttering down to cover her black shorts and upper thighs.

As she opened the door, the image of Suzanne in a light green robe had greeted her. The older woman asked if she could come in and the younger one nodded vigorously, not trusting her voice this time.

"Tear, I know that you're feeling anxious since I forced you to marry my only son. For that I apologize," Suzanne said as soon as she took a seat on the sofa beside the young woman. "I confess that my body is not as strong as it should be but my will has been strengthened through all the trials that had come and go in my life. I see the same will in you, thus I'm sure that you would make a wonderful wife and mother."

Tear finally found her voice as she had to explain her own conflicting feelings to her future mother in law. "That is true, Mrs. Fabre. Still, even if I am now having feelings for your son, I still wish for more time to know him better. I mean, marrying isn't just finding the right guy then having his children, right?"

"Yes, that is absolutely correct. But even then, you're already part of the family in my eyes and even Luke seems to agree with me in that regard. Your marriage would just make it official," The red headed matriarch told the younger woman with an accepting smile. "By the way, I want to see both a grandson and a granddaughter in the near future. I'm counting on you, my dear."

Before the younger woman could utter a word of protest, Suzanne had kissed Tear's forehead and left the room while closing the door behind her.

The brunette again readied for bed and later slept with only one thought running through her mind. 'I hope I can make up for Mrs. Fabre's kindness although if Luke and I would both have a son and a daughter within the next five years, we'd better get married as quickly as possible.'

-oOo-

The next day, Suzanne had asked them to come with her to her office in downtown Palestine while they were eating a continental breakfast. Both agents looked to each other as if waiting for the other to agree or not. In the end, they both said yes to the delight of the older woman.

The reason behind this request was that Suzanne wanted both Luke and Tear to see what she is presently doing and hopefully convince them to help her when they would retire from active duty.

The black Chrysler limousine was already waiting for them beyond the front door as they went out in their best business clothes. Luke still thought that his charcoal gray three piece business suit was a bit itchy in some places but for the most part, was fine.

Tear's charcoal business dress actually showed some curves but not enough so as to be too distracting.

Both twenty-something agents did avert their eyes off each other for most of the trip, only looking at Suzanne when she talked to either or both of them about the basics of their soon to be jobs in Fabre Industries.

They simply amused themselves watching city life that they had passed by while listening to Christmas songs played on the radio.

-oOo-

The guards were actually courteous to both visitors as they were escorted to the penthouse of the building they entered. Some of the older employees had even said hi to the young inheritor as they called him "Young Master".

Luke had some trouble remembering some of them due to his scrambled memories but remembered others as they had been quite memorable in his younger days for some reason or other.

-oOo-

Soon they arrived at Suzanne's well-decorated office where she had placed a lot of old photographs of Luke, including those taken while he was a baby.

Suzanne gladly told the younger woman some stories regarding some of the pictures she showed, which Luke had to excuse himself from both since those stories were really embarrassing.

He was actually amazed at how his mother and fiancée had actually gelled in so short a time. Other cases have them both at loggerheads with each other for some silly reason. It was as if both his mother and Tear had a lot of things in common.

It was that very fact that did creep him out a little but for now, it was simply ok. He did have a two weeks vacation with Tear, three days from now so he still has some time to learn the ropes from his mother.

-oOo-

Luke was so deep in thought that he actually bumped into a green haired secretary who was hurrying towards his mother's office. As he was helping the startled secretary up, he apologized for being in the way.

"That's ok; I was also at fault since I wasn't looking for where I was going." The young woman replied as she pulled herself up with the red head's help." The secretary then smoothed her dress with her hands. "You're Young Master Luke, aren't you?"

"Enough with the Young Master business, I mean Luke is already fine with me," Luke whined a little at being called "Young Master" by everyone he met in the office building.

"But Young Master Luke, that is the way we can show our respects to you. Please reconsider," The secretary pleaded as it was forbidden for them to be on first name basis with their future boss.

"Alright, alright. I may not like it, but I don't have any other choice so 'Young Master' it is."

"Oh thank you, thank you, Young Master." The secretary gave the surprised red head a quick hug before running towards her boss' office.

Luke felt a heated gaze on his back but it was gone just as quickly as it came.

He turned back only to see the almost tearful secretary apologizing to his fiancée. After a few minutes, all three women laughed, especially Tear. He made a mental note to ask his fiancée about it as soon as they could get a chance to be alone.

-oOo-

That afternoon, Suzanne had taken them to the factory for a quick tour around the various departments involved in body armor making. When they had reached a particular department, she let them talk with the personnel there as their introduction to the workers of the factory.

The workers themselves had taken the opportunity to suggest some new machines or processes that could either improve the quality of the products or speed up the work.

Suzanne took note of the given suggestions on her Personal Digital Assistant for examination by the company's engineering staff later on.

Both agents were awed by the sheer manpower and number of machines to make body armors that were known throughout the Free Oil States and beyond. They had agreed that when they do retire from active duty at Texas Intelligence, they would help Suzanne run her lucrative body armor business.

-oOo-

Finally, the day has finally come for both agents to head for the town's municipal airport where their plane bound for Tahiti was waiting for them.

Tear had wished that Suzanne would join them in their shared vacation but the older woman simply winked slyly and whispered in the younger woman's left ear that they could use the practice for their upcoming wedding night.

With flushing cheeks that caught Luke's full attention, Tear had hugged her future mother in law, greeted her with a quick "Merry Christmas" and ran to the waiting limousine, grabbing her luggage as she did so.

"Mom! Whateva Tear and I do on our spare time is our business," Luke said in a panicked voice as his own cheeks turned the shade of his slightly unkempt hair when he had correctly guessed what his mother told his new fiancée. "Besides, we will marry around a year from now so when could fulfill our promise to ya."

"I know, dear. She's just too easy to tease much like you. Just remember, if **something wonderful** happened there, the marriage will be moved to an earlier date." Suzanne replied, her lips in a mocking yet serene smile.

"Ugh, I give up. Good bye, Mom and Merry Christmas." Luke said as he kissed his mother's right cheek. He had picked up his own luggage and headed for the now idling car.

-oOo-

The black limousine had arrived at the small airport's parking area around noon. The private flight itself was scheduled to start at 12:30 PM.

After thanking the butler and the driver and even wishing both of them a Merry Christmas, Luke and Tear had walked through the airport towards the large airplane parked near the departure area.

They were customarily inspected both by the airport's security guards and the X-ray machines near the entrance before they were escorted by the airport's bald airport manager to their waiting plane.

The plane called Combat Corporate Jet-3 Raven looked a lot like a Bombardier Global Express XRS. Its composite wings were swept back to allow supersonic flight.

It also has five turbofan jet engines: one in the back of the fuselage (the body of the airplane), two in the middle of the wings and two more at the external weapon pods placed at both sides of the fuselage beneath the junction of the fuselage and wings.

It was also fearsomely armed with a Gauss cannon at its nose and four AIM-4G Falcon air to air missiles at its wings (two of which are hidden in External Weapons Pods under the wings).

It also has two AIM-9M Sidewinder missiles placed under the wings near the wing tips for close range aerial combat in tandem with the Gauss cannon.

They had no time to gawk further as one of the flight crew – a female Technical Sergeant who will serve as their flight attendant prodded them in the now powering up fixed wing aircraft.

-oOo-

Inside the flying craft, Luke was having fun with the computer games he had installed in the red Ferrari designed laptop that his mother had given to him as he was packing his stuff the night before.

Tear, meanwhile, was chatting with the flight attendant about the flight time, among other things.

The whole nine hour flight was long enough for the two to take a needed nap. The plane went past islands, and nautical miles upon nautical miles of ocean as they headed for the island of Tahiti.

By ten in the evening, the private jet had landed in Faa'a International Airport. The plane's crew helped the couple deplane where two big guards and a short dark skinned man wearing a Hawaiian shirt met them.

As was customary in the former French territory, he kissed both their cheeks as his welcome from his home country.

The petite man in the Hawaiian shirt is one of the territory's naval commanders and is also a good friend of both Captain Jade Curtiss and Colonel Peony the Ninth.

He had led the two agents to a four door duel car that took them to a 5-star hotel where both Luke and Tear were booked for the next two weeks.

Unfortunately, the fourth floor room where they would be staying was a honeymoon suite and Luke was actually cursing under his breath for the elaborate joke his superior had made just for them.

"Mr fon Fabre, is this room not to your liking?" The black haired man asked as he saw the cross look on the redhead's face.

"Um, the room is great an' all. It's just that Tear and I aren't married…yet." Luke was actually touching his forefingers as he said this. Tear's face was also beet red and it would look like she was trying to keep her temper in check, her clenched fists being a dead giveaway to the smaller man.

"Oh… there are no worries then. Peony said that if both of you aren't married before you come here, you will be on your way back." The brown skinned man said before he let out his breath in relief as he gave Tear the room's key cards. "Even Captain Jade Curtiss agreed completely, a rare event for those who knew them both very well."

"Um, thank you then and Merry Christmas." Luke said as he quickly shook the man's hand and Tear gave a customary kiss of her own before shutting the door and locking it.

-oOo-

"I'll take the couch," Luke told Tear as he finished his cold shower. He then headed for the light green couch with a violet pillow and an extra blue blanket, while only wearing a red T-shirt and green boxers.

"Luke…" Tear was about to say something but stopped herself quickly. Luke had sighed heavily as he approached his nightgown clad fiancée that was sitting in the bed.

He willed himself on not getting more perverted thoughts as the sheer black lacy nightgown that Tear was wearing simply ignited his libido. Thinking about her in an angry mood helped tremendously in that department. The bulge in his boxers had subsided almost immediately as a result.

"What is it, Tear? You know we can't stay together in one bed," Luke said as he placed a hand on his fiancée's almost bare left shoulder.

"Ordinarily, I would have agreed with you but I just feel guilty, sleeping alone in this double bed while you sleep on the couch."

Tear had risked a look at the hand on her shoulder and then looked up to see Luke's green eyes sparkling with amusement.

"Actually, it's more like a dry run for me since when we do become husband and wife – I'll be spending some of the nights in the couch anyway."

"Very funny, Luke but you're right." She stood on tiptoes to kiss him on his left cheek and got into bed. "Good night, honey."

"Sweet dreams, dear." Luke replied as he lied down on the couch and waited for the Sand Man to take him on the latter's nightly journey.

-oOo-

The next day, the couple took a relaxing walk at the pristine beach beside the hotel they were staying at. To pass the time, they had talked about themselves like their childhoods, hobbies, and other things so they could know each other better.

The various sounds of nature acted as their background noise as they walked about while the small ocean waves lapped at their wet flip-flops.

After the relaxing walk through the low tide surf, they returned to their room where their breakfast was waiting for them. The couple then showered and dressed separately since they were to be also given a quick tour about town.

They had returned to the hotel around noon with Luke carrying two paper shopping bags filled with all sorts of bric-a-bracs for Suzanne and their friends back in Texas.

Finally, the couple ate a fulfilling lunch before heading to the hotel's pool for an early afternoon dip.

-oOo-

Luke was walking towards the swimming pool wearing red board shorts and had a small white towel wrapped around his red hair. He also carried a bigger towel, this time the towel's color was blue, on his bare left shoulder.

Tear followed him wearing a one-piece black swimsuit with a red towel wrapped around her slim waist, instead of the skimpy red two-piece that was sent to her by the perverted chief of Texas Intelligence via Fed-Ex.

The hotel's loudspeakers were currently playing **"Santa Claus is Coming to Town." **sung by the **Rey Conniff Singers**.

When they got into the pool side while still holding each other's hand, they were shocked to see their friends namely – Jade, Ion, Sync, Arietta, and Anise waving back at them.

The men were also wearing trunks in different colors while the girls had worn two piece bikinis under their fluffy pink towels so that they could tease their boy friends later.

"Wh-what are you all doing here?" Luke had managed to stammer out as he saw them. He and Tear simultaneously released their clutched hands in an attempt to keep themselves from being teased further.

"How rude of you to say that Luke. Can't we have a vacation jus' like anyone else especially at Christmas time?" Anise said as she stuck her chin out in annoyance, ignoring the sudden separation of digits.

"Anise, please do not mind them. They are just enjoying their honeymoon. Or at least that's what Peony had told me," Jade told the twenty three year old as he would an errant child.

"Really, is it true? Tear, why did you not invite us to your wedding?" Arietta added her two cents in as her red eyes again filled with tears, this time with overwhelming happiness.

"Arietta, the old guy's jus' pulling our legs. If they were really married, both Ion and I would have known about it by now." Sync had spoken up as he placed an arm around his shorter girlfriend's bare shoulders. "Right, bro?"

"Definitely, big brother. Judging from the diamond rings both Luke and Tear were wearing, I'd say they were just engaged recently not married as Jade said." The other green haired twenty four year old young man said with a knowing smile.

"Curses, my plans for teasing the new couple of our esteemed organization had been foiled again." The forty year old agent said before diving into the infinity pool as both Luke and Tear were closing in on him with their fists cocked.

"Even then, congratulations." Everybody else had said with smiles all around.

"Hey, Luke. What's this I hear about you getting married? You lucky dog," A smooth deep voice from the hotel's doorway had said in surprise.

Luke had remembered the voice and slowly turned around to see Guy with his left arm around a younger blonde woman's waist.

'That's probably his fiancée- Noelle,' He thought with a sudden jolt of realization.

Behind them were Dr. Tsuyuji, Ginji, Taiyoh, Ren, Kai, Sayuri, and a red headed young man that he did not recognize at first. All of them were either wearing swimsuits and trunks.

They were also flashing wide grins at the now blushing couple. Tear was a bit surprised to see this many people that Luke had known in so short a time. Even then, she had only met Dr. Tsuyuji and Ginji in her recent stay in Texas Intelligence headquarters.

"Luke, you can keep your promise to me now. This is my boyfriend-Daichi, the one I was telling you about earlier." Sayuri was saying as she gestured at the now blushing young man beside her.

"Luke, this is getting a bit embarrassing. And here I was, looking for some peace and quiet." Tear whispered in her fiancé's right ear.

"Don't worry, Tear. When I give the signal, we make a run for it." He whispered back.

"Hey, what are you guys whispering about?" The blonde young woman (Noelle) said with a suspicious look.

"Hey, guys. I think I just saw Elvis over there," Luke shouted as he had pointed to an empty spot behind them.

"Where?!" The assembled group had looked back for a moment before realizing that Luke had tricked them and escaped with Tear in tow. "You'll pay for that, Luke."

-oOo-

"You do know they'll get their revenge later," Tear said as she was huddled with Luke in the hedges composed of carnation flowers.

Both agents had hidden themselves within the hotel's large botanical garden from the avenging group that they tricked earlier.

"I do. But right now, I get some alone time with you." The red head answered with a quick kiss. "Consider this, as my Christmas gift."

"Well then, Merry Christmas." The brown haired girl said as she returned Luke's kiss with interest.

* * *

Now, I can finally say good bye to each and everyone of you. Once again, thank you for reading (and reviewing) the stories that made up the Anime Car War series and maybe even enjoy reading the fan fictions as much as I do writing them.

Starting next year, I'll probably limit my story posting to just one fan fiction for the whole year. That is, if I could actually post one anyway.

The reason behind the above announcement is that I'm going to have my hands full in real life as I immerse myself in my day job, all for keeping my standard of living constant in the midst of a financially chaotic world.

So Happy holidays and maybe I'll see you when I see you.

Oh yeah, just read and enjoy.


End file.
